Metabolic Factors in Diffuse Idiopathic Skeletal Hyperostosis – A Review of Clinical Data

OBJECTIVES We aimed to review the literature linking metabolic factors to Diffuse Idiopathic Skeletal Hyperostosis (DISH), in order to assess associations between growth factors and DISH. METHOD We identified studies in our personal database and PubMed using the following keywords in various combinations: "diffuse idiopathic skeletal hyperostosis", "ankylosing hyperostosis", "Forestier's disease", "diabetes", "insulin", "obesity", "metabolic", "growth factors", "adipokines", "glucose tolerance" and "chondrocytes". RESULTS We were not able to do a systematic review due to variability in methodology of studies. We found positive associations between obesity (especially abdominal obesity), Type 2 diabetes mellitus, glucose intolerance, hyperinsulinemia and DISH. CONCLUSION Current research indicates that certain metabolic factors associate with DISH. More precise studies deriving from these findings on these and other newly identified bone-growth factors are needed.