[Antiosteoporosis medication: useful monitoring, and how long should such treatment be continued?].

The improved options for effective treatment of osteoporosis and the shift to treatment strategies based on each patient's absolute fracture risk raise new questions in daily clinical care. Which patient should have what osteoprotective therapy and when and for how long? What techniques can be used to assess the individual effects of novel therapeuties? Are the results yielded by these techniques affected by concomitant factors? What specific characteristics need to be taken account of in rheumatological clinics and how should we deal with these? What is the impact of patient compliance on the assessment of therapeutic effects? This review is intended to shed some light on these questions and on the new DVO guidelines in daily practice with reference to the ambulatory setting.