Results of this paper have shown via pathophysiological examples that rapid progress has been made in our pathophysiological concepts regarding the causal and formal genesis of osteopathy. Systematic organization of these concepts facilitates understanding and communication between the radiologist and the clinician. There is a marked contrast between this fact on the one hand and our lack of knowledge in the clear diagnostic description of osteopathies with the exception of hyperparathyroidism on the other. Important advances in current radiological research are represented by the radiologically subtle formal description of topographically relevant changes and quantitative analyses of the mineral salt content. However, at this stage we are unable to predict as to how quantification of the osseous mass will be successfully achieved in the near future. Scientific co-operation between radiologists and clinicians should be promoted and accelerated, since better on-target diagnosis is imperative, both from the viewpoint of sociomedicine and from that of epidemiology, in the case of metabolic disorders, which are essentially involved in increasing the morbidity of the entire population.