Bone Densitometry in Growing Patients

Deals with the use of dual energy x-ray absorptiometry (DXA) for evaluating bone density in children and adolescents. This title focuses on the myriad challenges of measuring and evaluating bone density in the pediatric patient. It presents technical detail to the proper utilization of DXA scan information in clinical practice.

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Bone Densitometry in Growing Patients: Guidelines for Clinical Practice, edited by Drs. Sawyer, Bachrach, and Fung, is a milestone book for all health prof- sionals concerned with bone health in growing patients. The book introduces and emphasizes the importance of attending to issues of bone health and development in childhood and adolescence as a way of maintaining such health and decreasing the epidemic of osteoporosis that we are now seeing in older adults. In doing so, the book offers a much-needed first set of standards of bone densitometry in growing patients. Given the numerous reports of serious interpretation errors in densitometry results in children, the development of this body of work is truly important. It is in this context that Bone Densitometry in Growing Patients: Guidelines for Clinical Practice presents the current evidence, including an assessment of the strengths and weaknesses in the data on assessing bone density in childhood and adolescence. In short, the editors and authors have done an outstanding job of or- nizing not only the key topics in this broad clinical discussion, but also, and most importantly, the evidence within these areas.