New test spots bone disease at outset

Press, 12 February 1986, Page 48

New test spots bone disease at outset

NZPA-AP Atlanta The treatment of osteoporosis, an often crippling form of bone loss that is common among elderly people, may be improved considerably by a new test to diagnose and treat the disorder in its early stages, says a researcher from Atlanta. Dr Gordon DePuey, a nuclear medicine specialist at Emory University, says the new diagnostic technique may become as routine as mammographies, which are X-rays used to detect breast cancer. “In fact, it probably will have more application than mammography,” he says. The test involves a bonescanning technique that can detect subtle changes in bone density — the early signs of bone loss. Bone degeneration makes bones brittle and easily breakable.

Some 1.3 million fractures — most of them in people aged over 65 — are attributed to osteoporosis in the United States each year, including 250,000 hip fractures.

“If we can detect osteoporosis in its very early stages, we can start treatment to prevent it before it ever starts causing problems,” says Dr DePuey. Treatments now include diet therapy, estrogen replacement, and exercise. Other treatments are being developed.

The diagnostic device, called a dual-photon absorptiometry machine, emits rays that penetrate the body. The rays measure bone density in the spinal column and in deep-seated areas of the body, where bone degeneration usually first takes place. Earlier bone-scanning techniques measured bone density only in the wrist and

arm, which tend to degenerate later than other bones in the body. The new device, says Dr DePuey, can accurately measure bone degeneration in the spinal column through a computer-gener-ated image on a video screen.

“We have this machine installed now at Emory, and will start using it for screening within another month or so,” he says. Dr DePuey foresees using the device to screen people at age 65, and thereafter every few years to detect early signs of osteoporosis. Screening also may be performed on others vulnerable to osteoporosis, such as people who suffer from certain forms of kidney disease.

He says the device also will be valuable in discovering whether new treatments for osteoporosis are preventing bone loss.