Infrared microspectroscopic analysis of bone tissue from ani­mal models and humans at equivalent anatomical locations gave great insight to the role of bone quality in determining bone strength. It became feasible to conclusively show differences in bone mineral maturity between normal and osteoporotic bone at equivalent anatomical locations. Even more revealing was the analysis of [...]

Molecular bonds are not stationary, but rather undergo motion such as twisting, bending, stretching, rotation and vibration. When irradiated with infrared radiation, these vibrational mo­tions absorb at specific wavelengths, characteristic of the over­all configuration of the atoms, and representative of specific functional groups. Moreover, through detailed analysis of the absorption wavelengths, information may be deduced [...]

Bone mineral is a poorly crystalline hydroxyapatite [Ca5(PO4)3OH] phase. Ion substitutions are abundant. For example, Na+1, and Mg+2 are substituting Ca+2 ions, HPO4-2 ions substituting the phosphate ions, Cl-1 and F-1 substituting OH-1, and CO3-2 sub­stituting for either phosphate or hydroxyl groups. Once mineral is deposited in bone by osteoblasts, it is not a static [...]

Bone Bone is a composite material, consisting mainly of mineral and collagen. In normal humans, cortical bone constitutes approxi­mately 80% of the human skeletal mass and trabecular bone approximately 20%. Bone surfaces may be undergoing forma­tion or resorption, or they may be inactive. These processes occur throughout life in both cortical and trabecular bone. Bone [...]

Health care budgets are limited and, therefore, new therapies are increasingly required to demonstrate both clinical and economic benefits. In the case of PMO, demographic trends indicate that in the coming years a larger proportion of the population will be at risk of PMO because of advancing age, thereby placing an increased burden on MCOs [...]

Over the three-year period, risedronate produced greater reductions in fractures compared to alendronate. Patients treated with risedronate experienced 23 hip and 111 vertebral fractures (134 total fractures) per 1,000 patients (Table 3). In contrast, a total of 28 hip fractures and 115 vertebral fractures per 1,000 patients (for a total of 143 fractures) were experienced [...]

Vertebral Fracture As with hip fracture, vertebral fracture rates for the general population were adjusted to reflect a PMO population. Efficacy values (in terms of relative risk of fracture) of 0.51 and 0.53 were used for patients treated with risedronate tablet or alendronate, respectively. These efficacy rates were obtained from randomized clinical trials with similar [...]