People with osteoporosis to benefit from new research
People at risk of the bone-thinning condition of osteoporosis could benefit from exciting new research about to start at the University of Manchester.
A team of imaging experts hope to devise a quicker and more accurate means of identifying vertebral (spine) fracture and diagnosing osteoporosis. One in three women and one in five men have a fracture after the age of 50.
The new diagnostic tool could lead to people receiving early treatment to prevent their bones becoming thinner and fracturing as they grow older.
Vertebral fracture is often the first clinical sign of osteoporosis. Fractures are currently detected by X-ray examination and a newer type of imaging called DXA (dual energy X-ray absorpiometry), but radiologists have to use manual measurements to assess the fracture and its severity, which can be time-consuming and inaccurate.
Now medical research charity the Arthritis Research Campaign has awarded a team headed by Professor Timothy Cootes, Professor of Computer Vision in the University of Manchester’s Imaging Science and Biomedical Engineering Research Division, a three year grant of £226,000 to develop a new computer programme which will be able to detect each vertebra in each X-ray and DXA image, and indicate whether it is fractured, and how badly.
“Detecting osteoporosis early by improving diagnostic techniques could be hugely important, as for patients with vertebral fractures proven therapies are available which reduce the incidence of subsequent fractures by 50 per cent or more,” explained Professor Cootes, who will be working with radiologist colleague Professor Judith Adams and Dr Terry O’Neill, a consultant rheumatologist at Hope Hospital in Salford.
“The tool we are developing will help radiologists and other clinicians to obtain more consistent results and should be able to detect more subtle changes than are currently possible. As well as helping to diagnose osteoporosis, it will also be extremely useful in monitoring people during clinical trials of drugs designed to treat the condition. In the long-term we would also expect to use the programme to measure the progression of the disease, and to see if fractures get worse over time.”
The new computer programme will be tested on patients in Manchester who are undergoing X-ray and DXA screening to detect possible early osteoporosis.
