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Medicare may cover bone density tests if a doctor deems them medically necessary. This may be because a person has osteoporosis, estrogen deficiency, or primary hyperparathyroidism, for example.
A scanner used to measure bone density using dual energy X-ray absorptiometry. Bone density, or bone mineral density, is the amount of bone mineral in bone tissue.The concept is of mass of mineral per volume of bone (relating to density in the physics sense), although clinically it is measured by proxy according to optical density per square centimetre of bone surface upon imaging. [1]
Bone mineral density (BMD) is a measure commonly used to quantify bone health. A lower BMD value indicates an increased risk of an osteoporosis or a fracture. [13] There is a large range of factors influencing BMD. Protein consumption has shown to be beneficial for bone density by providing amino acid substrates necessary for bone matrix formation.
Bone densities are often given to patients as a T score or a Z score. A T score tells the patient what their bone mineral density is in comparison to a young adult of the same gender with peak bone mineral density. A normal T score is -1.0 and above, low bone density is between -1.0 and -2.5, and osteoporosis is -2.5 and lower.
A wide variety of body composition measurement methods exist. The gold standard measurement technique for the 4-compartment model consists of a weight measurement, body density measurement using hydrostatic weighing or air displacement plethysmography, total body water calculation using isotope dilution analysis, and mineral content measurement by dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry (DEXA). [1]
In particular, physical exercise can be beneficial for bone density in postmenopausal women, [140] and lead to a slightly reduced risk of a bone fracture (absolute difference 4%). [141] Weight bearing exercise has been found to cause an adaptive response in the skeleton, [ 142 ] promoting osteoblast activity and protecting bone density. [ 143 ]
FRAX integrates clinical risk factors and bone mineral density at the femoral neck to calculate the 10-year probability of hip fracture and the 10-year probability of a major osteoporotic fracture (clinical spine, forearm, hip or shoulder fracture). [2]
The improvement to DXA with DXL is that, for each pixel scanned by DXA, the exact thickness of the measured object is also measured using lasers. The DXL results allow for a more accurate estimation of bone density by using three separate inputs (low and high x-ray energies plus thickness) rather than two for each pixel in the measuring region.