by
Keith Loria, Reporter | June 21, 2010
"We are always working on more complex technology to give clinicians more information. One of the things we are highlighting as our technology has advanced is the benefit of having a good image with DXA," says Wolf. "It has long been thought of as a modality that produces a number with a quantitative assessment and that is then applied to standards of the World Health Organization for diagnosis of osteoporosis. Since our technology has improved, we are noticing our customers are finding the benefit of a better image because they are able to see things that might be interfering with the scans, that they may not have been able to see with technology previously."
Wolf says another innovative addition is Scan Check, which gives the physician an overview of any abnormalities that pop up and points out areas of high density.
Hologic has also been busy. With the Discovery QDR series bone densitometer, Hologic is the first DXA manufacturer to receive FDA clearance for the new World Health Organization's FRAX 10-year fracture risk calculator.
Importance of FRAX
Unveiled by the World Health Organization in 2008, FRAX is an elegant patient assessment formula that works in a risk-calculating computer program.
"While the T-score remains the standard for diagnosing osteoporosis, the FRAX calculator breaks new ground enabling health care providers to identify patients with a high risk of experiencing bone fractures within a period of 10 years," Jenkins says. "By combining 11 of the highest risk factors, including age, personal history of factures, and family history of fractures, plus country-specific life expectancy and country-specific fracture data, the FRAX calculator identifies patients who are at high risk of fracture but would not be candidates for preventative therapy using the traditional T-score."
High Definition Instant
Vertebral Assessment
"This is really one of the biggest changes since the original classification of osteoporosis using T-scores," Jenkins says. "If you have a patient who is normal or borderline on their bone density score but have multiple risk factors, they may need treatment. It's a way to combine multiple factors to find out if a patient should have pharmaceutical intervention."
