Bone mass measurements.

The clinical application of bone densitometry is one of the advances in the field of osteoporosis that has led to the increased patient awareness of this increasingly prevalent disease. Bone densitometry has made it possible for clinicians to diagnose osteoporosis before the first fracture has occurred; predict risk for fracture in postmenopausal women, men, and in patients who are receiving glucocorticoids; and can be used as a surrogate marker to follow the efficacy of therapies and to examine those patients that might be osteoporosis-specific therapeutic nonresponders.