Insight into the potential of bone turnover biomarkers: integration in the management of osteoporosis and chronic kidney disease-associated osteoporosis.

Purpose of review: Disturbances in mineral and bone metabolism occurring in osteoporosis and chronic kidney disease-associated osteoporosis place patients at high risk of fracture making these conditions a major public health concern. Due to the limited use of bone histomorphometry in clinical practice, the gold standard for assessing bone turnover, extensive efforts have been made to identify bone turnover markers (BTMs) as noninvasive surrogates. Since the identification of certain commonly used markers several decades ago, considerable experience has been acquired regarding their clinical utility in such bone disorders.

Recent findings: Mounting evidence suggested that BTMs represent a simple, low-risk, rapid and convenient way to obtain data on the skeletal health and that they may be useful in guiding therapeutic choices and monitoring the response to treatment.

Summary: BTMs could provide clinicians with useful information, independent from, and often complementary to bone mineral density (BMD) measurements. They have proven valuable for monitoring the effectiveness of osteoporosis therapy, as well as promising for discriminating low and high turnover states. Improved performance is observed when BTMs are combined, which may be useful for selecting treatments for chronic kidney disease-bone mineral disorders (CKD-MBD).