Evolving Role of MR Imaging and PET in Assessing Osteoporosis.

An imbalance in bone remodeling results in many metabolic bone diseases, such as osteoporosis. fluorine-18 sodium fluoride PET imaging allows the assessment of bone remodeling process in a anatomy specific manner. On the other hand structural imaging modalities such as MRI can now generate high resolution images of bone including the trabecular and cortical microstructure.

Diagnosis and Monitoring of Osteoporosis With F-Sodium Fluoride PET: An Unavoidable Path for the Foreseeable Future.

The prevalence of metabolic bone diseases particularly osteoporosis and its precursor, osteopenia, continue to grow as serious global health issues today. On a worldwide perspective, 200million people suffer from osteoporosis and in 2005, over 2million fracture incidents were estimated due to osteoporosis in the United States. Currently, osteoporosis and other metabolic bone diseases are evaluated primarily through dual energy X-ray absorptiometry, and rarely by bone biopsy with tetracycline labeling or Technetium-99m (Tc) based bone scintigraphy.