Vitamin D Deficiency Rickets

• Etiology:
  — Deficiency of Vitamin D leading to disordered mineralization and ossification of the physes
  — Zone of provisional calcification has decreased mineralization and trabeculae fade into the cartilage and irregular margins at the cartilage-bone interface and rim of bone around the physis (metaphyseal cupping)
  — Stress from ligament attachments leading to fraying and flared appearance
• Imaging Radiograph:
  — Demineralization may precede typical rachitic findings
  — Most evident at metaphyses of fastest growing bones – distal radius and femur and costochondral junctions (rachitic rosary)
  — Cupping and fraying of metaphyses and widening of the physis
  — Disorganized cartilage expands causing apparent widening of growth plate
• DDX: Distal ulna often irregular in young children so as isolated finding this irregularity is not a finding of rickets
• Complications:
• Treatment:
• Clinical:

Radiology Cases of Vitamin D Deficiency Rickets