Bone Strength Measured in a 10-Second Scan

In the United States, more women die from the effects of osteoporosis than from breast, uterine, and cervical cancer combined. However, 80% of women who need osteoporosis screening have not been tested and 30% of patients that are tested are misdiagnosed when only bone density testing is used. The Hologic Discovery system has been shown to be very useful to early detection. Discovery bone densitometers quickly and precisely measure the two primary diagnostic indicators of osteoporosis--bone mineral density and vertebral fractures.

At an upcoming meeting of the Radiological Society of North America (RSNA), Hologic (Bedford, MA, USA) will demonstrate how the low-dose Discovery is even better with new functionality features, including Hip Structure Analysis, and the use of abdominal aortic calcifications (AACs), as seen in Discovery IVA spinal vascular malformation scans. AAC is seen as an independent and strong predictor of coronary heart disease, stroke, and other forms of cardiovascular disease. This new feature represents a significant advance in densitometry as compared to conventional bone density scanners, which only look at average bone density.

Hip Structure Analysis is designed to assist physicians in determining if a patient's bones have been weakened so as to require treatment, and if the patient is being treated, whether the patient's bones are getting stronger. HSA, the leading hip structure analysis method for dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry (DXA) scans in research and pharmaceutical studies, uses specialized software to examine the structural geometry of two-dimensional DXA scan images.


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