Improving the accuracy of X-ray absorptiometry imaging measurements of bone mineral density for the diagnosis and treatment of osteoporosis

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Dual-Energy X-ray Absorptiometry (DXA) imaging is currently the gold standard method for the diagnosis and treatment of osteoporosis. However, DXA measurements of bone mineral density (BMD) are affected by significant errors due to the variable lean and fat composition of the soft tissue surrounding bone. These errors lead to the frequent misdiagnosis of osteoporosis and failure to properly target treatments on the patients most in need.Kromek and King's College London intend to develop innovative algorithms to unlock the extra information captured by DEXA's multispectral detectors but currently not utilised by the outdated methods. This will see a step change in the reduction in noise of the BMD measure, making a breakthrough in the diagnosis and treatment of osteoporosis.The project will start by defining the requirements of the imaging system, followed by computer simulations which will develop and test the methods. A simple hardware system will be built to prove the real-life feasibility of the system, verified by a world-leading expert on bone densitometry..