Lucknow, Oct 20 : The Sanjay Gandhi Post Graduate Institute of Medical Sciences in Lucknow will have country's first national facility for metabolic bone diseases. The Department of biotechnology under the government, has cleared funds for the centre. Metabolic bone disease (MBD) is the third most common endocrine disorder after diabetes and thyroid. Common MBDs include osteoporosis, rickets/osteomalacia, fluorosis and primary hyperparathyroidism, while the rare MBDs include Paget's disease, tumour-induced osteomalacia, fibrous dysplasia and osteogenesis imperfecta. Of different diseases, osteoporosis is most common. In fact, bone health is a crucial element of public health as about 40 per cent of post-menopausal women and 20 per cent of the country's elderly population is osteoporotic. 'The centre will help in diagnosis of some rare diseases of the bone through world class infrastructure and equipment,' Prof. Sushil Gupta, faculty at the institute's endocrine medicine department. 'The centre will have the facility to conduct bone histomorphometry -- an advanced study of the bone metabolism including quantitative assessment of bone remodeling, modeling, and structure. It provides information that is not available from other investigative approaches,' he added. Talking about osteoporosis, Gupta said: 'Since bone loss is gradual and painless, there are usually no symptoms initially to indicate a person is developing osteoporosis. That is why osteoporosis is often referred to as the silent disease. In fact, often the first symptom of osteoporosis is a fracture. Therefore, testing of the vulnerable group becomes a necessary tool for prevention." /IANS