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Article: Bone density screening questioned.(Outpatient Connection)
- Article from:
- Healthcare Purchasing News
- Article date:
- November 1, 2003
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2003 Healthcare Purchasing News. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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Osteopenia, or low bone density, is considered by many doctors to be a first step along the path to osteoporosis, a serious condition in which bone density is extremely low and bones are porous and prone to shatter. But in a report published recently in The New York times, researchers say that while bone density predicts fracture risk, more is involved, including age, family history and a poorly understood factor known as bone quality. What's more, the report says that placing too much weight on the results of a bone densitometer test may actually obscure the potential danger of the disease.
Doctors are telling women to find out their bone density as soon as they ...