AGE-RELATED BONE CHANGE.

The article reports that there is now a strong body of evidence that adult men and women lose bone as they grow older. Although a number of bones have been suggested as suitable for measuring, the use of the metacarpals has attracted a number of investigators as they are roughly tubular in cross-section at their mid-points and have cortices which are generally thicker than their medullae. The limitations of studying the age-related changes in bone mass from one bone are self-evident. It is impossible to eliminate completely the effect of variation in the shape and size of the bone no matter which site is chosen.