Hologic - Osteoporosis Assessment

Abdominal Aortic Calcification (AAC)
A New Use for Hologic Central DXA

Coronary Heart Disease (CHD) is the leading causes of death of women in America and most developed countries, with nearly 39 percent of all female deaths in the U.S. occurring from CHD.

Despite advances in treating Coronary Heart Disease, a large number of CHD victims die suddenly without prior symptoms. Many coronary heart specialists now believe that available screening and diagnostic methods are insufficient to identify high-risk CHD patients before the first event occurs. As a result, physicians are urged to focus more on the aggressive detection of preclinical or subclinical atherosclerosis.

The Hologic Discovery Dual Energy X-ray Absorptiometry (DXA) system is now cleared for use as a measure of the possibility of coronary heart disease, stroke, and other forms of cardiovascular disease in addition to its use in osteoporosis assessment and vertebral analysis.

The new indication, visualizations of Abdominal Aortic Calcifications in a standard low dose bone density test, targets the number one cause of morbidity and mortality in older men and women - heart disease and stroke. AAC is significantly associated with both cardiovascular heart disease and stroke even after adjustment for the traditional risk factors of age, cigarette use, diabetes mellitus, systolic blood pressure, left ventricular hypertrophy, body mass index, cholesterol, and HDL cholesterol.

This new indication means that doctors can improve their ability to predict cardiovascular events by using information already contained in bone vertebral assessment studies. Since it's recommended that post menopausal women have a bone density test every two years, physicians can now visualize AAC which is associated with heart and stroke problems on a much more frequent basis.

Click here to download a White Paper on AAC