X-rays and CT Scans offer more insights

Artificial intelligence is enabling radiologists to extract valuable diagnostic information from routine chest imaging, including identifying patients at risk for osteoporosis and cardiovascular disease without additional scans.

Approximately 500 million people worldwide have osteoporosis or its precursor, osteopenia. Most are unaware they have it because bone mass reduction is symptomless.

Up to 80% of people who suffer a fragility fracture will never be diagnosed or treated for the underlying disease.

In the past the gold standard for identifying osteoporosis is dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry (DEXA). It measures bone mineral density at the spine and femur. A shortage of scanners, trained technologists and demand exceeding capacity creates barriers for many to be scanned.

Researchers in Seoul believe they have the answer. A validation test of 77,677 chest X-rays from 44,773 patients, who also had a DEXA scan within six months, showed that the AI tool achieved 90% sensitivity and 81% specificity.

This opens up the possibility of early scanning, using traditional X-rays, and treating the disease earlier.

SOURCE

https://healthcare-in-europe.com/en/news/ai-opportunistic-screening-routine-chest-xray.html