Osteoporosis. Normal (n) Osteoporosis. Normal (n) vs.
osteoporotic osteoporotic (o).
Notice the loss of trabecular bone
characterized by an enlarged medullary
space and thinner cortices. As you may
expect, the bones are fragile but not soft as
with rickets, osteomalacia or osteodystrophia
fibrosa.
The basic problem in osteoporosis is a
negative balance between for
mation and
resorption of bone leading to reduction of
bone mass. A simple definition of
osteoporosis is “there is little bone, but what
bone there is, is normal.” Osteoporosis is
also referred to as bone atrophy.