http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-BzmPD8AcBY
ScienceDaily (Oct. 20, 2010) — Researchers at the University of Rochester in New York are developing a new way to monitor bone health and search for signs of osteoporosis, using infrared light. At Frontiers in Optics 2010, Jason Maher, Andrew Berger, and their colleagues will present ongoing studies of the effects of steroids on the bones of mice.
Steroids are commonly prescribed for the treatment of rheumatoid arthritis. Glucocorticoids reduce inflammation around the joints and ease pain. But like most treatments, steroids have side effects. Studies have shown that they raise the risk of developing osteoporosis.
One way to study this problem is to treat laboratory mice with steroids and with various interventions meant to counteract the side effect. A key challenge is how to assess a bone's structural integrity. The gold standard, removing the bone and measuring the amount of force needed to snap it in half, can only be performed by sacrificing the animal. Standard X-ray techniques can noninvasively determine bone mineral density, but this has proven to be a poor predictor of fracture risk in humans with steroid-induced osteoporosis.
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/10/101020194656.htm