Abstract
Biochemical serum markers of bone metabolism are substances involved in all processes of bone activity. Systemic dispersion is the basis for their biochemical measurements. Both serum/plasma and urine measurements are widely used for clinical parameters of bone turnover, but accuracy and usability have favoured blood analyses over the years. This review will therefore focus on serum/plasma parameters of bone metabolism and their clinical applications and give hints on further applications within biological material.
Targets of biochemical analysis of bone metabolism are enzymes and proteins or their respective metabolites produced during bone formation and degradation. However, direct regulators of osteoblast and/or osteoclast cell function and activity might represent additional parameters of interest, since they may very well reflect dynamic processes in bone and adjacent tissue.
The usefulness of serum markers of bone metabolism has been widely recognized during the past decades, but increased significantly with the technical improvement of biochemical methods and the knowledge of new compounds in bone metabolism. Many of these markers have been established until now, but only few of them have entered daily clinical routine applications. The reason for this increasing interest is the possibility of characterization and diagnosis of metabolic bone diseases, but also the improvement of therapy decisions and therapy monitoring by biomarkers.
Regarding their potential, why do these biomarkers not appear in international diagnostic and therapeutic recommendations?
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Obermayer-Pietsch, B., Schwetz, V. (2012). Utility of the Determination of Biomarkers of Bone Metabolism. In: Pietschmann, P. (eds) Principles of Osteoimmunology. Springer, Vienna. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-7091-0520-7_6
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-7091-0520-7_6
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