DXA Alone Misses Most Fracture Victims

If you screen by DXA alone you fail to identify most of the individuals who will fracture.  Over 80% of fracture patients over age 50 have “osteopenia” or “normal” as their Bone...

Fracture Risk!!!!!!!! Not DXA Alone

This week a patient was delighted to know she had no bone worries – based on her t-score of -2.4 in her hips.  Unfortunately she was very wrong!  “Osteopenia” is just...

Fracture Prevention – Not Bone Mineral Density

The goal of Bone Health Evaluation and Treatment is Fracture Prevention!  DXA and Bone Mineral Density (BMD) are useful tools for evaluation.  But DXA and BMD are only one out of...

VFA Adds Acuracy to DXA Testing

Vertebral Fracture Assessment (VFA) identifies many persons with Clinical Osteoporosis who are missed by DXA testing alone.  How many?  I reviewed my first 941 patients to have VFA with their...

VFA – An Additional Standard

The vertebrae (bones in the spine) can gradually crumble or suddenly crunch.  The resulting minor ache is often mistaken for arthritis or a pulled muscle.  Gradual crumbles are “morphometric” (detected by x-ray)...

DXA – The Old Standard

DXA has been the standard screening test for Osteoporosis in the USA for two decades.  DXA is easy to obtain and the computer print-out makes it look very simple to...

What is Clinical Osteoporosis?

Increased Fracture Risk is Clinical Osteoporosis.  Clinical Osteoporosis is a diagnosis.  It is a chronic medical condition that you have for the rest of your life, like high blood pressure....

Stress Fracture = Osteoporosis

A fragility fracture is a fracture which happens from minor trauma.  A stress fracture happens from repeated normal daily activities, like walking or going up or down stairs.  This is...

True, but Irrelevant for Most Women

The New England Journal of Medicine has just published a study of DXA results.  The researchers have interpreted the results as a reason to stop testing women with DXA.  The...