Radiation-free BMD evaluation

Bone densitometry by radiofrequency echographic multi-spectrometry (REMS) in the diagnosis of osteoporosis

Cezary Iwaszkiewicz¹, Piotr Leszczyński^{1, 2}

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This work summarises the present knowledge of the new clinically available method for bone densitometry called Radiofrequency Echographic Multi-Spectrometry (REMS) and it represents the first Polish paper on REMS. This ultrasound-based approach enables the evaluation of bone mineral density (BMD) on the hip and the lumbar spine, the anatomical reference sites for the diagnosis of osteoporosis, as defined by the World Health Organization (WHO). During a REMS densitometry acquisition, a fully automatic algorithm performs a series of spectral and statistical analyses involving both echographic images and corresponding “raw” unfiltered radiofrequency signals.

This provides the identification of the region of interest (ROI) placed right below the bone surface and the calculation of standard densitometric parameters: BMD, T-score and Z-score. Differently from any other densitometry available method, nondiagnostic scans and spectra deriving from artifacts are automatically excluded by the algorithm, reducing the risk of false results. The high diagnostic sensitivity, specificity and accuracy of this innovative method in the diagnosis of osteoporosis has been recently proved by a previously published multicenter study.

1 Department of Rheumatology and Osteoporosis, Jozef Strus Hospital in Poznan, Poland

2 Department of Rheumatology and Rehabilitation, Poznan University of Medical Sciences, Poland