Limitations
Use of BMD has several limitations.
- Measurement can be affected by the size of the patient, the thickness of tissue overlying the bone, and other factors extraneous to the bones.
- Bone density is a proxy measurement for bone strength, which is the resistance to fracture and the truly significant characteristic. Although the two are usually related, there are some circumstances in which bone density is a poorer indicator of bone strength.
- Reference standards for some populations (e.g., children) are unavailable for many of the methods used.
- Crushed vertebrae can result in falsely high bone density so must be excluded from analysis.
Read more about this topic: Bone Density
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