Methods of Predicting Musculoskeletal Disease

Abstract

Methods of predicting bone or joint disease in a subject are disclosed. Methods of determining the effect of a candidate agent on any subject's risk of developing bone or joint disease are also disclosed. A method for generating a parameter map from a bone image of a subject includes obtaining the bone image of the subject, defining two or more regions of interest (ROIs) in the image, analyzing a plurality of positions in the ROIs to obtain measurements for one or more bone microarchitecture parameters and one or more bone macro-anatomy parameters, and generating the parameter map from the measurements.

What is claimed is: 
     
         1 . A method for treating a patient with disease affecting the musculoskeletal system of a subject, the method comprising:
 (a) obtaining a bone image of the subject;   (b) defining two or more regions of interest (ROIs) in the image;   (c) analyzing a plurality of positions in the ROIs to obtain measurements for one or more bone microarchitecture parameters and one or more bone macro-anatomy parameters;   (d) generating and analyzing a parameter map of the measurements to determine a status of the disease, the parameter map providing a spatial distribution in matrix form of the measurements;   (e) administering an agent for treating the disease;   (e) repeating steps (a)-(e) until analysis of the parameter map indicates a desired result is achieved in treating the subject.