[Osteoporosis: DEXA versus conventional radiography, comparison of 2 techniques. Preliminary study]

Osteoporosis is the most wide-spread metabolical illness in the world, affecting from 30-40% of white women and 13% of white men over 50 years of age. Recently, the DEXA technique (Dual Energy X-ray Absortiometry) has proven to be a method, which is accurate, precise, low-cost, low-risk in terms of exposition to radiation and fast in terms of execution times.

The results obtained by comparing 54 DEXA examinations with the same number of conventional X-ray examinations are presented. 54 women in menopause were submitted to a computerized bone mineral evaluation with a 2.0 version DEXA EUROMOX TBS at the level of the lumbar region (L1-L5) and the left femur, at the Gynecology and Obstetrics Clinic of the University of L'Aquila. During the same session the women were subjected to X-rays of the lumbar column, pelvis and femurs.

A diagnosis of osteoporosis was reported in 59% of the women in both the lumbar and femoral regions with DEXA, while conventional radiography showed osteoporosis in 33% of the examinations of the spinal column and in 51% of the femurs.

Thus, it was demonstrated that the presence of a disorder at the level of the spinal column can lead to an interference in the diagnosis, while the association of the femoral region, which is less subject to related disorders leads to a more accurate diagnosis of osteoporosis in doubtful cases.