Bone Mineral Density

DEXA Scan

What Affects the Test

Reasons you may not be able to have the test or why the results may not be helpful include:

• You cannot be correctly positioned during the test.
• You have had a broken bone in the past. This can cause falsely high BMD results.
• You have arthritis of your spine. In this case, the changes caused by arthritis in the spine may not make the spine the best place to measure for osteoporosis.
• You have metal implants from hip replacement surgery or hip fracture.
• You have had an X-ray test that uses barium within 10 days of the BMD test.

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Author:	Jan Nissl, RN, BS	Last Updated: October 4, 2006
Medical Review:	Joy Melnikow, MD, MPH - Family Medicine Carla J. Herman, MD, MPH - Internal Medicine
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