What Type of Results Will I Get from a DXA (bone density) Scan, and What do They Mean?

Bones are a fascinating form of living tissue that makes everything about how we move possible, from being the base for muscles and other tissues growing to developing joints that protect our organs and allow us to stand and move upright. Bones are vital to growth, creating blood cells, healing and reforming over time, and regulating and storing the minerals we need to live.

As powerful and vital as they are, bones are subject to disease and injury, and to determine the cause of skeletal problems, medical screenings like DXA tests are essential. Let’s review its method by examining how bones change as we age, the conditions that affect them, and what the test does to help.

Residents of the Winter Park, Orlando, and Lake Mary, Florida, area dealing with bone conditions can get testing help from Dr. George Stanley and his staff at University Diagnostic Institute.

How bones change over time

Your skeleton accounts for up to 15% of your body weight, and the bones consist of collagen (a structural protein found throughout the body), hardened by phosphorus and calcium encased in a hydroxyapatite mineral. Your bones fuse and grow as you mature, and your childhood starts with more bones than your adulthood, going from about 300 down to 206.

The hormones you develop as you reach puberty, mainly testosterone and estrogen, play a role in bone development and growth, and as you get older, you produce less of them over time. Bone growth also slows down if your body doesn’t have the proper balance of specific vitamins and minerals, namely vitamins A, K, and D, and calcium.

Common bone conditions

Injury is a common problem, which can lead to fractures that need to heal, but other conditions and factors affect bones:

Aging: Estrogen in women declines rapidly during and after menopause, and men lose testosterone throughout middle age but more sharply in their senior years.

Osteopenia: Bone density is an essential factor in skeletal health, and this illness results from reaching subnormal levels.

Osteoporosis: a decrease in bone density more significant than osteopenia, increasing your risk of bone fractures

Autoimmune conditions: Type 1 diabetes, systemic lupus erythematosus, celiac disease, and rheumatoid arthritis can all raise the chances of bone fractures.

Osteomalacia: a condition where the bone never hardens due to incomplete mineralization

Fibrous dysplasia: the result of abnormal fibrous tissue replacing the material in healthy bones

How the DXA test works

DXA is a screening method that uses X-rays to scan your skeleton for evidence of bone problems like osteopenia, osteoporosis, and trace of bone fractures. The procedure starts by lying on the X-ray table, where a technician readjusts your position with foam blocks to gather as much information as possible. Then, the arm of the scanning device moves over the targeted areas and gets images, which we use to determine your bone’s health.

The average time for this test is about a half hour.

With this test, we can gather information about various issues, such as natural bone loss and bone density evaluation, before starting treatment and monitoring the progress. The results are determined on a T score, indicating how close they are to a regular healthy person’s bones, meaning that a rating closer to 0 is the desired number, so anything up to -1 is good, and between that and 2.5 indicates osteopenia, and over that is osteoporosis.

Bone health is critical, and the DXA test is a helpful tool to ensure your bones stay healthy. Make an appointment with Dr. Stanley and University Diagnostic Institute today if you're dealing with bone problems that require imaging.