title: Bone health in children and adolescents: the available imaging techniques.
abstract: Many clinical conditions affecting children can be associated with a loss of bone mass and quality, leading to an increased risk of fracture over the life. Actually, different techniques are available to assess bone density and/or bone quality, but their employment in children and adolescents requires the acknowledgement of their characteristics and reference values, as well as of age, sex and pubertal stage of the patient. In this paper, the main densitometric techniques are described, and the principal conditions potentially affecting bone health in young people are indicated, with the intention of providing a small guide to prevent fractures in people at risk.
authors.affiliation: Department of Health's Sciences, Anna Meyer Children's University Hospital, Florence, Italy.
authors.forename: Stefano
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Stagi
authors.affiliation: Department of Surgery and Translational Medicine, Bone Diseases Unit, University of Florence, Florence, Italy.
authors.forename: Loredana
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Cavalli
authors.affiliation: Department of Health's Sciences, Anna Meyer Children's University Hospital, Florence, Italy.
authors.forename: Chiara
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Iurato
authors.affiliation: Department of Health's Sciences, Anna Meyer Children's University Hospital, Florence, Italy.
authors.forename: Salvatore
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Seminara
authors.affiliation: Department of Surgery and Translational Medicine, Bone Diseases Unit, University of Florence, Florence, Italy.
authors.forename: Maria Luisa
authors.initials: ML
authors.lastname: Brandi
authors.affiliation: Department of Health's Sciences, Anna Meyer Children's University Hospital, Florence, Italy.
authors.forename: Maurizio
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: de Martino
keywords: DXA; QUS; bone mineral density; bone quality assessment; children; densitometry; pQCT