Background: Paget disease of bone has an unknown etiology, having complex pathogenesis leading to increased bone resorption in the first phase and an excess of bone formation with more advanced disease. The disease has been associated to white ancestry in Europe and other countries, being less common in people without European origin.
Objectives: The objectives of this study were to describe the Colombian cases of Paget disease and search the published literature for more Latin American cases and their characteristics.
Methods: Electronic databases were searched up to August 2004: MEDLINE, PUBMED, BIREME LILAC, and MEDCARIB, evaluating the entire bibliography regarding reports of Paget disease in Latin America during the last 30 years. Additionally, we searched the medical databases of local reference centers to describe new cases from Colombia.
Results: We found 14 cases of Paget disease from Colombia; 12 of them were previously reported elsewhere and 2 additional cases were found in the medical database of a local reference center. We describe the main clinic characteristics, including age, symptoms, type and stage of involved bone (monostotic or polyostotic), and treatment, which generally are similar to cases from Europe or the United States. The literature search showed that a total of 1149 cases of Paget disease have been previously published from Latin America in the last 30 years, more than half of them coming from Argentina and Brazil with predominant white ancestry.
Conclusions: We emphasize the presence of white European origin or ancestry in the great majority of reported cases of Paget disease in Latin America and Colombia. Studies of factors that influence the etiology in cases of non-European ancestry would be of interest.