In order to study changes in the calcium depots of the body during pregnancy and lactation, bone mineral deteminations were performed on fourteen pregnant women and eighteen mothers post partum by X-ray spectrophotomeyry. Pregnant women exhibited a loss in trabecular bone but not in cortical bone when measured once during late first or early second trimester and again one week post partum. Lactating women who nursed less than three months lost mineral during the first three months and than regained it while those who nursed for longer than three months had no losses during six months of study.

Bone mineral measurements were performed at five skeletal sites in seven alcoholics. The mean annual loss of bone mineral in alcoholics was about 2 per cent higher than that of controls.Ketj words: osteoporosis; bone mineral; alcoholics; photon attenuation measurement Accepted 29.iv.76Alcoholics have a high incidence of fractures (Nilsson 1970). This fact may be explained by an increased exposure to trauma. It is also possible that the increased incidence of fractures in alcoholics is caused by bone fragility since they have a reduced bone mass as compared with controls (Saville 1965, Nils-The purpose of the investigation presented here was to study quantitatively the bone mineral losses in different parts of the skeleton in a number of alcoholics. The investigation was conducted on seven patients at the Alcoholic Research Clinic, Karolinska Sjukhuset, Stockholm, and on seven agematched controls. The patient selection wa3 limited to middle-age subjects in whom the period of excessive alcohol consumption varied from 7-40 years. The patients were included i0 a group described earlier by D a l h & FeldreicE (1974). They were not socially deprived and none had undergone gastric resection. The meail age for the alcoholics at the end of the follow-up time was 55.9 years (S.D. = 4.2) and for the controls 56.3 years (S.D. = 4.1). MATERIAL AND METHODS RESULTSThe bone mineral content in the alcoThe change in bone mineral content was determined by X-ray spectrophotometry (Jacobson holies and the Controls at the end of the The effect of alcohol on the skeleton has been experimentally studied by Saville & Lieber (1965). Ethanol-fed rats were found to have a low bone density as compared with that of controls. The difference in bone density could be explained by difference in weight. Ethanol was therefore interpreted to have an unspecific effect on the skeleton acting as an inhibiting factor on growth.

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