title: [Measuring bone density with ultrasound--ready for general practice?].
abstract: Osteoporosis is characterized by low bone mass, loss of bone structure and/or typical fractures (vertebrae, radius, hip). The costs for the treatment of hip fractures in Germany are about 1 billion DM per year, the mortality rate after hip fractures is between 10 and 30% within the first year. Low bone mass is an important risk factor for the development of fractures; so far however, no procedure for the measurement of bone density has been able to 100 percent differentiate between patients with established osteoporosis and healthy people of the same age. This is due to the fact that the defect in bone structure causing the disease could not be measured so far. Quantitative ultrasonometry (QUS) is a new, non-invasive, radiation-free method for the in vivo measurement of bone density and bone structure. Measurements at the calcaneus and at the phalanxes have shown the equivalence of QUS compared to radiological methods in prospective studies with regard to the prediction of hip fractures. Furthermore it was shown that the beneficial osseous effects of postmenopausal estrogen/gestagen replacement therapy can be detected by QUS. Since QUS is considerably cheaper and the devices are easily transportable, this method is a valuable supplement in the range of diagnostic tools in osteology. Its clinical value however depends on the experience of the user and it should be applied in patients only together with medical history, physical examination and perhaps additional imaging procedures. It was not the inadequate methodology that has brought osteodensitometric methods into discredit but the undifferentiated handling by inexperienced users.
authors.forename: C
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Wüster
mesh_terms: D015519:Bone Density / Q000187:drug effects / Q000502:physiology*; D001842:Bone and Bones / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging / Q000187:drug effects; D003720:Densitometry / Q000295:instrumentation*; D015914:Estrogen Replacement Therapy; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D015663:Osteoporosis, Postmenopausal / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging* / Q000188:drug therapy; D012016:Reference Values; D014463:Ultrasonography / Q000295:instrumentation*
vernacular_title: Knochendichtemessung mittels Ultraschall--reif für die Praxis?