Hope everyone is well and finding some way to cope and understand osteoporosis. I am currently medication free( my choice) . I have been curious about the osteoscan that I have read people talk about. I am curious to see if it gives the same reading as the dexta. Unfortunately it's not till December as it was fully booked.
Has anyone been for one and what were your opinions on it. Apparently there is a 45 minute talk after it to discuss your results and moving forward. I havnt broken any bones or had any fractures so hopefully continue this way.
Any information would be greatly appreciated
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Olliemaya
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I have an appointment with Osteoscan in May. I will let you know what happens. I'm not on medication. Someone on the forum may have been more recently and can help you. Good luck.
I shall be going for my third one in November time. Have not booked it yet. I cannot rely on a dexa as I have scoliosis and the dexa could not provide me with any kind of reliable reading.
I contacted osteoscan asking if they could give me a reading. I was told they would try three times and will more than likely be able to provide information. It worked! Hurrah! For me it is money well spent.
I am not on any medication although it has been offered.
I've had 4 REMS scans after 2 unreliable DEXA scans. My first REMS was 15 months after my second DEXA and gave similar results to DEXA for my total hip and neck of femur, but much better results for my spine. All three REMS readings were similar, but DEXA had shown discordance between spine and hip. There were positioning errors with DEXA and on my second one they even recorded my height wrong!
Research has shown DEXA and REMS to give very similar results when both are done properly. If you're using Osteoscan for REMS, I would expect that to be done correctly as Dr Birch is an expert in his field. The whole appointment lasts 45 minutes, which includes the scan itself, so the consultation about your results won't take as long as that, maybe half an hour.
My story is EXACTLY the same as Met00's apart from I have had only 1 REM scan so far. Hip was similar spine was different. What I like is that you also get a bone strength measurement as well as bone density. So for me, although my bone density is into the osteopenia range (once the the spine measurement discrepancy was rectified), my bone strength was doing very well. Dr. Birch is very good.
Met00 hello, when you mention a discordance between spine and hips, what exactly it means? There should be a correlation between the two scores( hip and spine)?
Yes, some experts say that different sites should have t-scores within 1 standard deviation of each other. So when my last DEXA gave a spine t-score of -3.6 and a hip t-score of -2.5, that was more than 1 standard deviation difference and should have raised questions about accuracy. My subsequent REMS scan gave both scores as -2.6. It should also be noted that scores for adjacent vertebrae (L1, L2, L3 and L4) should also be within one standard deviation and if they're not, the deviant score should be excluded.
Very similar to my case: my last DEXA( July 24) showed -1,9 femur and -3.2 spine. Dexa prior to this was in 2022 and showed instead of -3,2, -2,4. And hip the same value of july 24. That's so complicated to understand.....
Did you spine go from -3.2 to -1.9 and your neck of femur from -2.4 to -3.2 between 2022 and 2024? If so, one or both of those scans was likely to have errors in it! Osteoporosis is systemic, meaning you would expect to see similar changes at different sites, not a loss of bone density in one area and a gain somewhere else!
I google what you have say about the correlation between the scores, and I found a technical paper about it. Unfortunatly it is in portuguese, otherwise I would send it to you. I will try to discuss it with my doctor but I´m afraid she may not be aware about it.
I had that scan plus the long talk afterwards. My bones are fragile (strength) rather than osteoporosis. Because my back has a number of issues a Dexa scan isn’t trustworthy. The advice given to me is to always use my walker and avoid falling. I’ve never taken the meds and it was never taken into consideration that I couldn’t get a reliable dexa scan result. I’m 80 years old and age is also relevant.
I’ve had three REMS scans now with Osteoscan. My DEXA results were rather disparate and the REMS scans brought them much closer together, which is logical as Osteoporasis is a systemic condition. Also slightly better, only just into osteoporosis. The consultation with Nick Birch is very worthwhile as he is very knowledgeable on the subject. I am not on medication, although it was prescribed after the DEXA.
Thanks for your reply. I am the same not on medication even though it was recommended after my scan. Looking forward to my scan with Dr birch to see what his results are
hi I had a REMS scan with Dr Nick Birch in September. He felt my last Dexa as rogue as his scan agreed with the previous Dexa, done in a different authority. REMS and previous Dexa showed osteopenia not OP, but since I’ve had a spinal fracture, he felt taking Alendronic acid was justified to prevent further fractures. He observed fragility in my bones.
I found it so helpful to talk through the results with him and the condition in general.
If you have an appointment booked I would advise signing up to Osteoscan Facebook page as they publicise cancellations there. I was originally booked for March but got a cancellation for the previous September.
I’ll definitely be going back for another scan in 2 years.
My last Dexa scan showed osteoporosis. I was not happy with the way it was carried out. I had a REMS scan with Dr Birch which resulted in osteopenia.
It was money well spent. Dr Birch is extremely knowledgeable and will give you excellent information. He said that if the operator carrying out the Dexa scan does not position you correctly you can get an inaccurate result.
It's absolutely worth it as many have replied. However the results can differ from Dexa and can be better or worse...the two are not directly comparable. The big advantage with REMS is the fragility score which gives you an idea of fracture risk .. green is good and means you are unlikely to fracture even if the T scores are quite low. That helps to know especially if you want to try some Liftmor type approach to lifting. REMS will pick up changes in bone much quicker than Dexa so is a useful way to monitor which direction you are going in and no radiation risks ... just cost. I believe when a lot more data is available in many years it will become standard practice.
I was diagnosed with Osteoporosis in my spine and Osteopenia in my hips by a Dexa scan after breaking my shoulder 18 months ago.I decided not to start treatment until I'd had a Rems scan. The Rems scan confirmed the osteoporosis in spine with a slightly worse score in my hips (also Osteoporosis ) - but unlike the Dexa scan there was no discord between the hips and spine results.However the Rems measures actual bone strength and my strength was good - well within normal range.My shoulder break was an anomaly due to a bad fall and nothing to do with bone strength. I am petite and slim with a BMI of 18.5 and it seems that petite women are diagnosed with Osteoporosis when actually our bones don't need or have the same density as a heavier weight person. The consult with Nick Birch was incredibly thorough and helpful - I left his surgery with a plan to maintain strength and the confidence that my bones were strong enough to continue my active lifestyle without taking the medication. Take any information you have including blood test etc to your scan. We also drove to the Osteoscan main clinic and got an appointment within 2 months .
I had first REMS a few weeks ago after first Dexa in June. Dexa showed -3.1 femoral neck and -4.4 lumbar spine. My BMI is around 19 to 19.2, I'm now 71 and just under 5'6". REMS femoral neck very similar to Dexa, to be expected apparently with my age, BMI etc and I'm pretty active. Lumbar spine was less than Dexa. What was good was bone strength. Also Dexa frax score had counted 2 previous fractures I had, both from what Nick Birch classed as trauma not fragility. I'm now concentrating on diet and exercise, stopping effervescent AA which I hated taking, and have a Vit D3/K2 spray. I opted to travel to the main Osteoscan clinic for my first appt and so only had to wait about 6 weeks - I've already booked another more local one for 2026. The podcasts on Osteoscan website are really informative. My slight worry is that I'm developing arthritis in my hips but when I saw a local consultant he said weight bearing exercises won't make them worse, hopefully injections that I'm due to have will help the varied pain. I can only say that I'm really glad that I had the REMS, the more informed we are the better.
Hi! I was just about to post on here, because I had an Osteoscan done last week! I had a Dexa scan done 2 years ago, age 73, and was told I had osteoporosis and needed to go on Alendronic Acid. I did some research, didn’t like what I read about it, and because I was fairly borderline, and I’m very fit and strong for my age (something they don’t take into account when calculating your fracture risk) I decided to try supplements and exercise instead. I had the osteoscan to check how I was progressing. My scores on the Dexa scan were - Spine L1-L4 T score -3.3, Z scores-1.0 (osteoporosis), Left femoral neck -2.2, -0.2 (Osteopaenia), Total hip (Left) -2.3, 0.3 (osteopaenia). I was also told I had scoliosis. My 10 year fracture risk was calculated at 21%. Firstly, the consultant I saw last week said the fact there was such a big difference between the T scores rang alarm bells with him as to how accurate the Dexa scan had been. When looking at the images, it seemed to him that I wasn’t correctly positioned for the scan and the interpretation may have been flawed. He also thought because of this I may have been wrongly diagnosed with scoliosis and after I performed a few movements for him, it appeared he was correct. I took a strength test, because that has a lot of bearing on your likelihood of fracture, and did well on that. There was too much discussion to report here, but basically, my T scores were between -2.4 and -2.6, but recalculating the Z scores, they were around 0 or just below. He checked with me what supplements I was taking g, all of which he agreed with but suggested I had a blood test to check I was on the right level of Vitamin D. He was happy I was not taking Alendronic Acid. Just for clarification though, he was happy because I have a high level of fitness and muscle strength, so taking the ‘average 75 year old’ into consideration when doing the calculations would not have been right in my case. I hope this helps anyone else sitting on the fence about taking AA
I had one and posted about it Sept 23. I found it very useful and informative with good nutritional advice and explanation and a specific fragility score which was different to the NHS DEXA. I’ll see if I can find the post and give you the link.
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