Serial BMD Measurement 2 of 7 Physicians who are familiar with estrogen therapy may be reluctant to commit a patient to long-term treatment, without evidence of efficacy in a particular patient. Since new therapies for osteoporosis, such as bisphosphonates, are considered bone-specific, there is at least an intuitive appeal to serial monitoring to determine their effectiveness. Because osteoporosis is a silent disease, the challenge to the physician is patient compliance.
Serial monitoring is one way to demonstrate the value of treatment to the patient.