On an X-ray picture of the hands along with an aluminum step-wedge, the bone density was measured at the middle site of the metacarpal bone II with a densitometer and a computer to provide 6 indices in healthy subjects and patients with osteoporosis in order to assess the degree of bone density. This method was observed to exhibit significant correlations with the already established methods for bone mineral assessment including the Jikei method, photon absorptiometry, and bone biopsy. Thus our method permits the assessment of the degree of bone atrophy.