A new method based on contact surface profilometry for quantitative measurement of resorbed bone volume.
Bone is a dynamic tissue. Its continuous remodeling depends on the balance between bone formation and bone resorption. These two processes are carried out by specialized cells called osteoblast and ostreoclast respectively. The osteoclastic bone resorption consists in degradation of the mineral and collagen components of bone. The study of bone turnover requires accurate assessment of osteoclastic bone resorption, that becomes even more important in pathologic bone loss due to the uncoupling between bone formation and bone resorption. Osteoclastic activity is diffucult to measure. Many techniques, generally based on the detection of the resorbing lacunae (lacunae (pits) due to the bone degradation, allow to estimate bone resorption, but none of them quantitatively and directly measures the volume of resorbed bone. We propose a reliable and relatively simple method, based on contact surfact profilometry, to evaluate directly and quantitatively the volume of resorbed bone. The method has the following advantages:
Fusi
Franco
F
Dept. of Clinical Physiopathology, Medical Physics Sect. University of Florence, Viale Pieraccini 6, I 50139 Florence (Italy).
Mercatelli
Luca
L
Basile
Venere
V
Pucci
Mauro
M
Siano
Salvatore
S
Antonio Bernabei
Peitro
P
Monici
Monica
M