[Diagnosis of primary osteoporosis (author's transl)].

The diagnosis of osteoporosis is usually based on the presence of hypertransparent radiological images of the spinal column with vertebral collapse, when other relatively rare causes (mainly myeloma) have been excluded. One recognized, other etiological factors have to be discarded, especially cortisone therapy, before diagnosing primary osteoporosis in patients over 55 years of age in whom it is more frequently present in women (post-menopausal osteoporosis). Various indices of the amount of bone present in the limbs and pelvis can be used to assess the proportion lost with age, but these give only incomplete information on the degree of vertebral osteoporosis.