Perplexing DEXA scan results

[Brizzleben]

Hello all.

I posted a question about a week ago about vegetarian diet and self-treating for osteoporosis, and big thanks again to all of you who replied.

I have since called my GP asking to see the results of the two scans, from May 2018 on what looked like quite an old machine and August this year one something looking a lot newer.

They seem to show a mixed picture

Lumbar spine has worsened from -3.2 to -3.5

Right total hip is unchanged at -1.3

Right femoral neck has improved from -2.1 to -1.6

Left total hip results can't be compared because the previous T score was illegible but is now -1.5

Left femoral neck has improved from -2.0 to -1.8.

Can I draw any conclusions from this, do you think?

[PMRpro Ambassador]

You can't compare the readings when done on different machines anyway - they don't give absolute results and even on the same machine you can get differing results if the technologist isn't careful about positioning and the amount of bone the radiation passes through differs.

That spine reading is osteoporitic - the rest are good and wouldn't trigger a need for anything more than calcium and vit D. Osteoporosis can result in spinal fractures after a relatively simple fall and even spontaneous spinal fractures called compression fractures

webmd.com/osteoporosis/guid...

They can be very painful and in some cases result in real disability as the result of a relatively minor fall.

It is possible to improve spinal bone density with exercise and some bisphisphonates have been claimed to work well particularly on spinal bone density. I don't know what the FRAX score would be for the risk of spinal fractures in the future - that might inform a decision on how much to worry about the spinal readings.

[Brizzleben in reply to PMRpro]

Thank you, PMRpro. I thought as much.

[PMRpro Ambassador in reply to Brizzleben]

You could try the ROS helpline - they are supposed to be very good at explaining and discussing options:

theros.org.uk/