New Ultrasound-Based Methods for Early Osteoporosis Diagnosis and Fracture Risk Estimation

Osteoporosis is the most common disorder of bone metabolism. The main consequence of this disease is the increased risk of fracture. Osteoporotic fractures represent a serious problem in terms of social and economic costs. Then, there is a strong need for the assessment of the best practices in prevention and treatment of osteoporosis. Dual X-ray absorptiometry (DXA) represents the current "gold standard" method for osteoporosis diagnosis. However, DXA cannot be employed for population mass screenings, because of required exposition to ionizing radiation and high management costs. The aim of this paper was to review the currently available techniques for osteoporosis diagnosis and also to illustrate the feasibility of an innovative quick, cheap and non-invasive ultrasound-based methodology. The results recently published by the authors' research group suggest that the proposed approach has the potential for routine application in early diagnosis, which is the key to resize the impact of osteoporosis on healthcare systems.