X-ray or gamma ray systems or devices – Specific application – Absorption
Patent
1997-07-10
1998-09-15
Porta, David P.
X-ray or gamma ray systems or devices
Specific application
Absorption
378 56, G01N 2302
Patent
active
058091041
DESCRIPTION:
BRIEF SUMMARY
The present invention concerns a method of measuring the bone mineral content in the skeleton in a body part which is irradiated from one side with X-radiation which is detected on the opposite side of the body part.
The present invention also concerns an arrangement for measuring the bone mineral content in the skeleton in a body part.
An illness which is rapidly increasing throughout the world is osteoporosis, both in the industrialized world and in developing countries. The illness generally affects older women but it has recently been discovered that osteporosis can also affect younger people and people of both sexes.
In order to reduce the risk of this type of illness, it is usual to give older women in particular drugs which have an inhibiting effect on the decalcification of the skeleton. At present the administration of this medication is somewhat arbitrary since with existing methods and arrangements it is difficult and expensive to assess whether medication is necessary. Consequently large quantities of drugs are prescribed to people who are not in fact suffering from osteoporosis whilst others who in reality are suffering from it do not receive the help they require. This gives rise both to unnecessary personal suffering and unnecessary costs for society. In order to overcome this problem, it has proved necessary to be able to diagnose osteoporosis reliably.
The best way of establishing whether a person is suffering from osteoporosis is to determine the bone mineral content in any suitable bone in the body. A large number of different devices have been developed for this purpose.
WO-A-86/07351 discloses an arrangement for measuring the bone mineral content in the heel bone. This measuring arrangement has a casing in one side of which a source of gamma or X-rays is disposed together with a radiation-detection device disposed on the side opposite the X-ray source. The detection device is in turn connected to some type of control system, for example a computer which analyzes the results obtained. In order that the arrangement can function to a relatively satisfactory degree, it is necessary for the space, in the casing, surrounding the foot to be filled with water. In spite of this, however, the results provided by the arrangement are unsatisfactory.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,348,009 discloses a similar arrangement for measuring the bone mineral content, in which arrangement a radiation source is disposed on one side of a casing adapted, for example, to a foot. Disposed on the opposite side is a detector which is connected to a signal-processing unit. In addition devices for measuring distance are disposed in the casing on each of its sides around the object to be measured in order to determine the thickness of the bone. These devices are also connected to the signal-processing unit, and the mineral content per unit of volume can be determined by a combination of the signals received from the radiation detector and the thickness measurement.
EP-A-0 432 730 discloses a further measuring arrangement for measuring the bone mineral content. This arrangement comprises a casing, a device disposed on one side of the casing for generating X-radiation together with means for detecting X-radiation. The arrangement also comprises a filter which is disposed in front of the X-ray device and can vary such that the spectrum of the X-ray signal is delimited, whereby the X-ray signal is divided into two different energy levels. A disadvantage of this method is hat the bone mineral content is established only on the basis of the measurements received from the two different levels of the X-ray signal such that it is impossible to separate all the components of the heel and the method does not provide reliable results about the cause.
Finally EP-A-0 549 858 discloses an arrangement for carrying out measurements of bone mineral contents wherein an X-ray source having two energy levels or energy bands is used to determine the amount of a given substance in a physical object. The bone mineral content sought can supposedly be obtai
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Kullenberg Ragnar
Ullberg Anders
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