Osteoporosis

In a healthy adult the skeleton is maintained through a process of complementary bone resorption and deposition (Das & Crockett, 2013). The two cell types responsible for this process are the multinucleated osteoclasts derived from the blood and resident osteoblasts. In the course of normal living the skeleton will develop localized, stress-induced microfractures, which trigger resident osteocytes to signal for help from the osteoclasts. The osteoclasts arrive and begin to degrade old bone, while osteoblasts engage in the regeneration process.

As people age the balance between mineralized bone resorption and deposition can become skewed to favor resorption over deposition (Das & Crockett, 2013). This is especially true for post-menopausal women because estrogen has been shown to be essential for maintaining a healthy balance between osteoclast and osteoblast activity. This case study examines a 65-year-old woman who has been diagnosed with osteoporosis using a bone density scan. The meaning and...
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