[Clinical usefulness of biochemical markers of bone remodeling in osteoporosis]

Osteoporosis with its various clinical expressions is characterized by abnormalities of bone remodeling that can be assessed by biochemical markers of formation and resorption. Measurements of the serum concentration of osteocalcin and bone alkaline phosphatase (formation) and of the urinary excretion of pyridinoline and its peptides (resorption) are the most efficient markers in the investigation of osteoporosis. Recent studies, some of them still in progress, allow to define the clinical use of these markers: firstly to improve the evaluation of the fracture risk, and secondly to monitor the efficacy of antiresorptive drugs.