Gordon L. Klein (ed.)Bone Drugs in Pediatrics2014Efficacy and Challenges10.1007/978-1-4899-7436-5_1
© Springer Science+Business Media New York 2014
1. Introduction
(1)
Department of Orthopaedic Surgery and Rehabilitation, University of Texas Medical Branch and Shriners Burns Hospital, 301 University Boulevard, Galveston, TX 77550, USA
Abstract
This book is an attempt to bring together in one volume existing information on the use of drugs to treat or prevent bone loss in children. Unless a child suffers from a genetic condition in which bone loss is flagrant the process of bone loss is often asymptomatic and if it occurs consequent to an underlying condition it does not attract medical attention. Therefore, this book undertakes to call to the reader’s attention the drugs available to prevent or treat pediatric bone loss. Even though no drugs have current approval for this purpose from the United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA), these chapters contain evidence of both safety and efficacy of antiresorptive and anabolic medications that have been used off-label in a variety of pediatric conditions.
This book is an attempt to bring together in one volume existing information on the use of drugs to treat or prevent bone loss in children. Unless a child suffers from a genetic condition in which bone loss is flagrant the process of bone loss is often asymptomatic and if it occurs consequent to an underlying condition it does not attract medical attention. Therefore, this book undertakes to call to the reader’s attention the drugs available to prevent or treat pediatric bone loss. Even though no drugs have current approval for this purpose from the United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA), these chapters contain evidence of both safety and efficacy of antiresorptive and anabolic medications that have been used off-label in a variety of pediatric conditions.
The outline of the book proceeds from the general to the specific, beginning with a chapter on the influence of age and development on drug pharmacokinetics (Chap. 2). This general chapter provides the justification for producing this book inasmuch as children may metabolize drugs differently than adults. Then, in order to provide at least a glimpse of the process of drug discovery, we examine how drug discovery may potentially play a role in studies on the mechanism of bone formation as Chap. 3 focuses on the search for a compound with anabolic potential to stimulate osterix in the differentiation of marrow stromal cells into mature osteoblasts.
Stay updated, free articles. Join our Telegram channel
Full access? Get Clinical Tree
