Cracks in the Bone Test; August 2012; Scientific American Magazine; by Deborah Franklin; 2 Page(s)

Hip fractures kill and cripple far too many elderly women and men. Every year roughly 350,000 people in the U.S. shatter their hips and end up in the hospital, where more than 14,000 of them die. Another 24 percent die within a year of the injury; half lose their ability to walk. Most of these fractures, which cost about $17 billion in medical care annually, result from a withering of the skeleton known as osteoporosis.

Physicians have long used x-rays to estimate the density of bone mineralsa rough indicator of bone strength. In 2011 the influential U.S. Preventive Services Task Force, which sets testing standards that Medicare and other health insurers tend to follow, began urging all women to get an enhanced x-rayknown as a DXA (dual-energy x-ray absorptiometry) scanof the hip or lower spine to check for small fractures or worn spots at age 65. The National Osteoporosis Foundation suggests that all men have the same screening scan by age 70.