Ultrasound May be Alternative to Assess Osteoporosis Risk
Findings from a multi-center trial suggest that ultrasound of the heel may be an effective tool to identify women who are at higher risk for developing osteoporosis. One benefit of this approach versus conventional screening with dual energy x-ray absorptiometry (DXA) exams is minimized radiation during screening. The study was published in the journal Radiology.
The study examined more than 6,170 women between ages 70 and 85. None of the patients had a history of osteoporosis. Each patient was screened with heel-bone quantitative ultrasound (QUS) to determine bone density. Findings from the QUS allowed determination of the heel stiffness index.
The team also considered additional risk factors including history of recent fractures or falls and age of the patient. These were included in the assessment based on QUS to develop a rule to predict the risk of developing fractures.
The women were separated into two groups based on the findings. Less than one quarter of the women (1,464) were deemed low risk, the remaining 76.3 percent (4,710 women) were high risk. Participants were then mailed questionnaires every six months, the longest follow-up was 32 months, to assess changes in health status, including illness and fractures.
More women in the group deemed high risk had fractures during follow-up compared to the women in the low risk group. The rate in the first group was 6.1 percent compared to 1.8 percent in the second group. A total of 66 women participating in the effort broke a hip, 90 percent of whom were in the high risk group.
The researchers suggest that assessing women’s heels with the QUS method is an appropriate method to identify those women who are at high risk for development of osteoporosis. Those patients can then be referred for additional screening. The benefit of this approach is reducing the amount of exposure to women who do not require intensive evaluation. In addition, the proposed approach is less expensive and may better utilize healthcare funds.
July 1, 2008 Related topics: Diagnostic, Radiology, Nuclear Medicine