Advances of biochemical markers in diagnosis of metabolic bone disease in preterm infants

With the continuous improvement of medical level, the success rate of the treatment for premature infants is increasing, and the incidences of various lung and brain sequelae, as well as endocrine and metabolic system diseases, are going up. The study of lung and brain diseases of premature infants has been very extensive and in-depth. In recent years, the issue of metabolic bone disease in premature infants has received extensive attention and become a hot research topic. The disease lacks typical clinical symptoms in the early stage. When children show clinical symptoms or abnormal X-ray findings, bone mass decalcification has reached 30%-50%, resulting in skeletal malformation and height growth restriction of premature infants. In terms of diagnosis, there is no gold standard, and no specific biochemical markers for metabolic bone disease in premature infants have been found in related studies. This article makes the following review on biochemical markers of bone metabolism, in order to find biochemical markers with high specificity and sensitivity, and help to find early metabolic bone diseases and improve the infants’ quality of life. Key words: Preterm infants; Metabolic bone disease; Serum biochemical markers; Urinebiochemical markers