Department of Nuclear Medicine, Kyung Hee University School of Medicine, Seoul, Korea With the evolution of bone densitometry, differences in technologies, measurement sites, reference databases, and reporting methods have developed. These differences may have adverse effects on osteoporotic patient management and may cause confusion in clinical decision making. The international society for clinical densitometry (ISCD) convenes a position development conference every two years for the purpose of reducing the present confusions and making the recommendation on clinically relevant issues on bone mass measurement. Recently the ISCD official positions were updated with the new guidelines on peripheral bone densitometry, vertebral fracture assessment, and pediatric application. Recent publications have suggested that an individual's 10-year absolute fracture risk is likely to be a more reliable predictor of osteoporotic fracture than BMD measurement alone. In 2008 a fracture risk assessment tool (FRAXTM) was introduced based on clinical risk factors. This new method makes it possible to assess a patient's risk of future fracture and decision making on therapeutic intervention. As Korean-specific data on risk factors for osteoporosis remain sparse, there is increasing demand on more precise and additional informations for the application of these new guidelines. This review contains the important key issues of recently announced guidelines for the diagnosis and fracture risk assessment of osteoporosis.
