THE NEW GENERATION OF OSTEOPOROSIS DIAGNOSIS – BES TEST
WHAT IS OSTEOPOROSIS?
HOW TO TREAT OSTEOPOROSIS?
Osteoporosis is a disease in which bones weaken and in which they are more likely to fracture. At present, in clinical practice, no direct methods are available to measure bone strength in cases of osteoporosis (primary or secondary) or degenerative bone disease. The most widely used diagnostic method, densitometry, provides an assessment of the mineral content of bone, and the diagnosis of osteoporosis is made on the basis of the number (T-score) of standard deviations below the mean Bone Mineral Density (BMD) calculated for young Caucasian women.
Although a low bone mineral density value is believed to indicate an increased risk of fracture, most fractures occur in postmenopausal women and elderly men at moderate risk. In fact, despite the importance of the contribution made by mineralization, it is well known that strength, that is, the ability of bone to withstand applied loads, also depends on its micro-structure, which is derived from the trabecular architecture of mineralized tissue, an aspect that currently available techniques are unable to account for. The estimation of bone density alone is, therefore, not a sufficient parameter for assessing the load-bearing capacity of bone and, therefore, that of the load-bearing capacity of trabecular tissue should be added to this assessment.
BES TEST
How to prevent osteoporosis
The BES TEST is a test that is based on simulating the application of forces on what can be considered a virtual biopsy of the patient’s bone architecture, obtained from radiographic images. It is therefore an absolutely innovative and unique approach, completely different from densitometry. Because of these characteristics, the BES TEST is also capable of identifying at-risk individuals who escape densitometric diagnosis, as also demonstrated in studies conducted to date, and is therefore proposed as a complement to the tools in use for better management, including pharmacological management of the patient, at extremely low cost.
HOW IT WORKS
how to prevent osteoporosis