Units

Laboratory of translational research, campus Brugmann

The unit consists of different research groups: 1) Laboratory of experimental immunology (F Corazza); 2) Clinic of Immunoallergology (O. Michel, VI Doyen);  3) Physiopathology of bone and calcium metabolism:  regulation of bone remodeling  and the role of the Parathyroid-hormone Related Peptide in its regulation (P. Bergmann, N. Nijs, R. Karmali); bone mass measurements in metabolic bone diseases (coll. with the dept of Nuclear Medicine (A.S. Hambye), the Dept of medicine (J.J. Body, S. Cappelle) and the Clinic of Rheumatology, A. Peretz); 4) Experimental surgery: grafts of foetal organs (V. Coulic, with the collaboration of the Dept of Surgery and the Laboratory of Pathology); 5) Clinical Research Unit (A. Peretz, T. Besse): conception, organization and gestion of clinical studies.

Projetcs

Study of the methods used to evaluate bone mass and fracture risk

The golden standard for bone evaluation is dual photon X-ray absorptiometry(DXA) of the lumbar spine and of the hip. More recently, ultrasounds have been proposed as an alternative for bone measurements. The question is that of the complementarity of these approaches: does ultrasound behaviour inform us on bone structure, independently of its known relation to bone mass. To try to answer this question, we compare the results of DXA to those of ultrasound investigations in different clinical bone diseases, characterized by a great diversity of bone structure modifications.