[Bone metabolic markers in osteoporosis].

Since osteoporosis has been defined as "state of low bone mass", the bone mineral measurement has been utilized as a golden standard. However some limitations in bone mineral measurement such as expensive machine, very small extent in bone mineral change and/or required long term observation to detect significant change in bone mass, are prohibited extensive use. On the other hand, recent advances in the measurement of bone metabolic markers arrows us to utilize in the diagnosis of osteoporosis as well as in the monitoring of drug efficacy for osteoporosis. Especially in the monitoring of osteoporosis under some treatment, the magnitude of the change in bone metabolic markers are about 10 times higher than that in bone mineral density. Therefore, the measurement of bone metabolic markers may be utilized more widely in the clinical field of not only osteoporosis but also the other metabolic bone diseases in near future.