Here are the answers to all 10 questions, backed by authoritative medical textbooks:
1. Primary cause of rickets in children → C. Vitamin D deficiency
Rickets is a disease in children attributable to vitamin D deficiency. Vitamin D is required for calcium absorption by the intestine — its deficiency leads to inadequate calcium and phosphorus for bone mineralization. — The Developing Human: Clinically Oriented Embryology
2. Common symptom of rickets → B. Bowed legs
Rickets affects the growing skeleton, causing classic skeletal deformities including bowed legs (genu varum), among other signs like widened growth plates and rachitic rosary. — Goldman-Cecil Medicine
3. Mineral primarily affected in rickets → C. Calcium
The primary function of vitamin D is to provide adequate levels of calcium and phosphorus by increasing their intestinal absorption, making them available for normal bone mineralization. Calcium is the principal mineral affected. — Goldman-Cecil Medicine
4. Vitamin that helps calcium absorption to prevent rickets → C. Vitamin D
Vitamin D (activated through two-step hydroxylation in the liver and kidney) enhances gastrointestinal absorption of calcium and phosphorus. — Grainger & Allison's Diagnostic Radiology
5. Age group most commonly affected → B. Toddlers and preschool-aged children
Rickets occurs in growing children, specifically affecting the epiphyseal cartilage and developing skeleton — most prominent during the rapid growth years of toddlerhood and early childhood.
6. Prevention of rickets → C. Taking vitamin D supplements
Nutritional rickets is healed (and prevented) by treatment with physiologic doses of vitamin D, along with adequate dietary intakes of calcium and phosphorus. — Tietz Textbook of Laboratory Medicine
7. Deformity associated with rickets → C. Genu varum (bowlegs)
Genu varum (bowlegs) is the classic skeletal deformity of rickets, resulting from softened and weakened bones bearing body weight. — Robbins & Kumar Basic Pathology
8. Diagnostic method to confirm rickets → B. X-ray
Radiography (X-ray) is the standard imaging modality used to confirm rickets, showing characteristic findings such as widened, frayed, and cupped growth plates (metaphyseal changes).
9. Food source rich in vitamin D → C. Fatty fish
Fatty fish (e.g., salmon, mackerel, sardines) are among the richest natural dietary sources of vitamin D.
10. Hormone that regulates calcium and phosphorus levels → C. Parathyroid hormone (PTH)
PTH works together with vitamin D to regulate calcium and phosphorus levels — increasing resorption of calcium and phosphorus from bone and enhancing renal reabsorption to maintain blood levels. — Robbins & Kumar Basic Pathology
