Metabolic Bone Disease

Since so many patients with bone disease present to the rheumatologist we have devoted a chapter to this subject. No attempt has been made to cover the disorders of calcium homeostasis, which are properly and fully covered in textbooks of endocrinology and metabolic and renal medicine and in the large rheumatology texts. The diseases of bone which are of most importance to the rheumatologist are osteomalacia, osteopenia (osteoporosis) and Paget’s disease, and it is upon these that we have concentrated. In keeping with the rest of this text, we have focussed upon therapeutic implications.