Osteoporosis, a widespread and crippling condition, is often called the silent thief because it robs victims of their bone well before the disease is detected. Canadian researchers have found a new use for the common x-ray that may help detect bone theft before it's too late.
When you go for an x-ray, doctors use the radiation that passes through your body to make an image. But some radiation is scattered off in different directions. Currently, this information isn't used to make images, it's just thrown away.
Canadian researchers are figuring out how to use these scattered x-rays to create images that provide new information about bones and bone diseases. These images will significantly improve the diagnosis of osteoporosis, leading to earlier detection and better treatment. By studying the scattered x-rays, researchers can actually measure the building blocks of bone such as calcium, fat and marrow something which is not possible with machinery currently used to check bone strength.
Dr. Ian Cunningham of Robarts Research Institute at the University of Western Ontario in London and his research team are using a one-of-a-kind machine to make these measurements.
"This (scatter pattern) information is normally ignored in medical imaging and in CT scanners. It's because we don't have instrumentation that can measure it," says Dr. Cunningham, the lead researcher on this study. Their work is supported by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research.
There is also the potential to use this new technique to help improve measurement and diagnosis of other conditions such as kidney stones.
In the future, Cunningham hopes that imaging from scattered x-rays will be added to machines already in use in hospitals, such as CT scanners where they can help doctors make an early diagnosis and quickly sound the alarm on the silent thief.
