Systemic corticosteroids (CS) are often used in treatment of Crohn's disease and are usually considered the main cause of osteoporosis in patients with Crohn's disease. The aim of this paper was to assess the influence of CS on development of osteoporosis in Crohn's disease. In this study bone mass density (BMD) was analyzed in 43 patients with Crohn's disease. Most of the examined patients (72.1%) used CS for more than 3 months. Osteoporosis was diagnosed in 30.2% of patients, and osteopenia

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... 44.2% of patients. There were no statistically significant difference in BMD among patients who were on CS and the ones who were not. In the group of newly diagnosed patients 60% had reduced bone density, opposing 61.6% of patients with previously diagnosed disease. There was no statistically significant difference among those two groups of patients. Risk factor such as corticosteroid therapy is not independent risk factor for reduced BMD. Newly diagnosed patients have high prevalence of reduced BMD and they were not on CS therapy, which suggest that possible inflammatory nature of the disease is a possible risk factor for reduced BMD in Crohn's disease.