Quantitation of Bone Mineral Density in the Growing Skeleton: Methods and Meaning

With the advent of quantitative techniques to measure bone mineral content a little more than a decade ago, our ability to quantify changes in bone mass and assess osteoporosis has markedly improved. For pediatric purposes, this development has awarded us the facility to diagnose and quantify the loss of bone mineral associated with the various disorders that cause osteopenia in children (1). It has also enhanced our understanding of the childhood antecedents of a condition that happens to manifest in elderly subjects: osteoporosis. Prior to the introduction of quantitative imagery analysis, the evaluation of bone mineral was done by conventional radiography, which provided a relatively insensitive depiction, as bone mass may have already decreased by as much as 40 percent by the time osteoporosis was appreciated (2).