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
Famous quotes containing the word limitations:
“The motion picture made in Hollywood, if it is to create art at all, must do so within such strangling limitations of subject and treatment that it is a blind wonder it ever achieves any distinction beyond the purely mechanical slickness of a glass and chromium bathroom.”
—Raymond Chandler (1888–1959)
“The only rules comedy can tolerate are those of taste, and the only limitations those of libel.”
—James Thurber (1894–1961)
“No man could bring himself to reveal his true character, and, above all, his true limitations as a citizen and a Christian, his true meannesses, his true imbecilities, to his friends, or even to his wife. Honest autobiography is therefore a contradiction in terms: the moment a man considers himself, even in petto, he tries to gild and fresco himself.”
—H.L. (Henry Lewis)