The bisphosphonates comprise a new class of drugs, and are increasingly being used to treat bone diseases characterised by increased osteoclastic bone resorption. These compounds are generally well tolerated, but toxicity may vary considerably from one compound to another. Dosages of etidronic acid above 800 mg/day impair the normal skeletal mineralisation and this may be associated with the appearance of fractures, but at the doses used for the treatment of osteoporosis, none of the bisphosphonates induce clinical or histological signs of impaired mineralisation. The skeletal half-life of bisphosphonates is of the order of several years, but this appears to be of little clinical consequence since the pharmacological effect is of relatively short duration. The mechanical properties of the skeleton of animals treated over long periods with high doses of various bisphosphonates have been shown to be perfectly preserved. However, in growing individuals, excess inhibition of bone remodelling might induce osteopetrotic-like alterations. When high doses of amino-bisphosphonates are given to patients who have never received bisphosphonate therapy, the patients may experience fevers up to 39 degrees C for 1 to 3 days, associated with transient haematological changes resembling a typical acute-phase response. Rapid intravenous injection of bisphosphonates at doses greater than 200 to 300 mg may cause severe renal failure; this can be prevented by slowing the rate of infusion (< 200 mg/h). Administration of high doses of bisphosphonates to patients with high bone turnover may induce a rapid and transient drop in serum calcium which is seldom symptomatic. The gastrointestinal absorption of bisphosphonates is low, and they must be taken without food. Oral amino derivatives may induce dose-related serious gastrointestinal lesions, with the sporadic appearance of erosive oesophagitis. Amino-bisphosphonate administration has been also associated with the sporadic occurrence of uveitis, scleritis and phlebitis and, in single cases, with irritative reactions at the skin, peritoneum and pericardium.

Bone densitometry has become a major tool for osteoporosis risk assessment. The traditional dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry (DXA) methods are able to evaluate the bone mineral content (BMC; mg/cm) and the areal density (BMD; mg/cm2), but only quantitative computed tomography (QCT) has the potential to measure the true volumetric bone density in the sense of mass per unit volume (mg/cm3). Peripheral QCT (pQCT) measurements were carried out at the nondominant radius using a Stratec XCT 960 (Unitrem, Roma) in 241 postmenopausal and 29 premenopausal women. The sites of evaluation were both the ultradistal and the proximal radius. The technique used has a coefficient of variation of 2% and it allows separation of the bone section into trabecular and cortical bone on the basis of density threshold. Bone mass of radius, hip and spine was also evaluated by DXA procedures. The bone density data obtained by pQCT were significantly correlated with all DXA measurements. The correlation coefficients between their respective BMD values ranged from 0.48 to 0.75, but for the BMC values of the radius the correlation coefficients ranged from 0.82 to 0.93. The BMD values measured by DXA, but not by pQCT, were positively related with patient heights. All pQCT density measurements, including those obtained at the proximal radius and containing exclusively cortical bone, where negatively related with age and years since menopause. A partial volume effect, which is increasingly relevant the thinner are the bone cortices, might explain that. However, by applying increasing density thresholds, cortical bone density seems to decrease with age as a consequence of a gradual density diminution from the inner part of the bone cortex outwards. Trabecular bone density decreases with aging, but its overall mass does not change as a consequence of an age-related enlargement of trabecular area. Thus, the proportion of trabecular bone over total bone rises, and this might be relevant for our understanding of the age-related changes in bone turnover and rate of bone loss.

Mineral metabolism was studied in 99 premenopausal and 80 postmenopausal women both before and after 9-14 months of treatment with 50 micrograms/day transdermal estradiol. In estrogen-repleted subjects (premenopausal women and postmenopausal women on estrogen replacement therapy) total serum calcium was significantly lower (0.065 mmol/l; p less than 0.001) than in those who were estrogen-depleted (untreated postmenopausal women). This difference was smaller but still significant for calculated ultrafiltrable calcium (UFCa: 0.02-0.03 mmol/l; p less than 0.001). However, ionized calcium (both calculated and measured) was not different in the two groups of women. This finding explains why estrogen repletion does not induce changes in the serum level of intact parathyroid hormone (PTH), despite lower total or ultrafiltrable serum calcium. In a parallel study we have shown that intravenous administration of aminobutane bisphosphonate, a powerful inhibitor of bone resorption, produces similar decreases in serum calcium which were associated with significant increases in intact PTH. Estrogen-depleted women had, on the one hand, significantly higher serum levels of bicarbonate, anion gap, complexed calcium, pH, phosphate and alkaline phosphatase, and higher rates of tubular reabsorption of phosphate and urinary excretion of calcium and hydroxyproline. On the other hand they had lower serum chloride levels and lower rates of tubular reabsorption of calcium. Altogether these findings might indicate that estrogen deficiency decreases renal sensitivity to PTH. This is responsible for the higher serum phosphate and bicarbonate levels, the resulting mild metabolic alkalosis leading to higher serum levels of complexed ultrafiltrable calcium and higher rates of urinary excretion of calcium, but unchanged serum levels of ionized calcium and PTH.

The best method for the diagnosis of osteoporosis and assessment of fracture risk is currently considered to be bone densitometry. The most commonly used dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry (DXA) methods may sometimes not predict bone mass accurately in every skeletal site, are expensive and not widely available. The recent development of computed analysis of a plain radiograph of the hand might provide a practical, inexpensive and rapid method for evaluation of bone mineral status. In this study we evaluated 20 healthy premenopausal and 660 postmenopausal women. In 36 of these subjects a second evaluation was carried out after 2 years of therapy with calcium supplements. The internal and external diameters of the second metacarpal and the metacarpal and ultradistal radial bone density were evaluated using a technical device developed in our laboratory and marketed by NIM, Verona, Italy (Osteoradiometer). The radiographic images, captured by a video camera, were digitized and studied by computed analysis. In 150 subjects bone density at the level of the lumbar spine, femur, and ultradistal and proximal radius was also measured by DXA techniques. Both external (D) and internal (d) diameters increase significantly with age and years since menopause (YSM), whereas metacarpal index (D--d/D) and metacarpal and ultradistal radial bone density decrease significantly with age and YSM. The ratio between metacarpal bone mineral content and the cortical area (volumetric metacarpal bone density) did not change with age. Significant correlations were found between radiometric findings and DXA measurements. The best correlation coefficients were between bone density measured at the level of the ultradistal radius by DXA and radiographic absorptiometry. In the 2-year follow-up study, a 4.9% and 6.2% decline in radial metacarpal bone density respectively were observed, but the difference was statistically significant only for the latter. In conclusion, computed radiogrammetry is closely correlated with all DXA measurements and may be useful in screening of large populations, providing a simple, inexpensive and sufficiently precise method for evaluation of bone mineral status. Further studies are warranted for assessing the accuracy of radiogrammetry for longitudinal investigations and its capacity to predict fracture risk.

This study provides the normative data of bone mass in growing individuals by making use of a reasonably accurate and easily available technique. The results obtained indicate that most of the differences between males and females and the changes with age are related to changes in skeletal dimension rather than density.