[Terminology of osteopenic skeletal changes]

Osteology which was for a long time only sporadically be found in the literature of internal medicine won an increasing importance during the last decades, above all as the problems of so-called metabolic osteopathy are concerned. Sometimes technical terms appeared which were incorrectly chosen or used, which at any case led to certain misunderstandings. The consequences of this concern partly essential questions of pathology and therapy. In the present discussion it is tried to correct several of these notions and to formulate them according to the actual facts.