A comparative study on symptomatic and asymptomatic osteoporosis by using the P-DEXA technique

Objective: We conducted a study to detect and compare the osteoporosis in symptomatic and asymptomatic adults by using the heel dexa technique. Methods: We screened a total of 173 patients who attended a medical health camp which was conducted in southern Karnataka, India. Their ages ranged from 20 to 80 years. They were asked for the presenting complaints before testing for their heel bone mineral density(BMD) by using the p-dexa technique. The WHO equivalent for the heel BMD was used to classify the patients, based on their T-score. Osteoporosis was considered when the T-score was less than - 1.6. Osteopaenia was considered when the T-score was between -0.6 to -1.6. The T-scores which were above -0.6 were considered as normal. The statistical analysis was done by using the Chi square test for the data in frequency and percentage. Results: 94 out of the 173 patients presented with one or more complaints which were related to the skeletal system, like pain in the neck, back, shoulder, legs and hip, generalized body pain, etc. Among the 94 patients who were symptomatic, 54 (58.75%) had osteopaenia, 19(18.92%) had osteoporosis and 21(22.33%) had a normal T-score. Among the 79 remaining patients who were asymptomatic, 25 (31.6%) had a normal T-score, 46 (58.2%) had osteopaenia and 8(10.2%) had osteoporosis. The frequency of the osteoporosis was significantly higher in the symptomatic individuals than in the asymptomatic individuals (p<0.05). Conclusion: Our data suggests that P-dexa is a useful technique for detecting and comparing osteoporosis in both symptomatic as well as asymptomatic cases.