[Diagnostic approach to osteoporosis].

The diagnostic approach to osteoporosis usually involves an ample risk assessment, a physical examination, a radiograph of the thoracic and lumbar spine, a bone densitometry using dual X-ray absorptiometry, and a basic blood test. The aim of this approach is to assign a person to one of the WHO-based diagnostic categories, and to estimate the ten-year fracture risk of this individual. In countries where available, the individual ten-year fracture risk can now easily be calculated for men and women of forty years of age and above, by using a computer-driven calculation tool, called FRAX, which has been developed by WHO recently.