[Quantification of bone mineral density].

Abstract

To evaluate the skeletal state of bone pathophysiology in metabolic bone diseases including osteoporosis, various non-invasive bone mineral quantifying methods have been developed recently, and used clinically. As each bone quantifying method differs in its principle of measurement, the index obtained, the site of measurement, precision, data-acquisition time, and radiation dose, the characteristics of and problems with these methods should be kept in mind. Among these bone quantifying methods, the fundamental performance of dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry (DXA) is excellent, and it is the most popular bone quantifying method at present. In this paper, the role of bone quantifying methods in the diagnosis of osteoporosis, the actual procedure of measurement by DXA, the relation between bone mineral densities at different sites of measurement, the importance of longitudinal measurements, and the relation to bone metabolic parameters were reviewed.