Partnership to Advance 3D Osteoporosis Assessment

Hologic, Inc. (Bedford, MA, USA) has reached a strategic research agreement with Prof. Klaus Engelke, Ph.D., head of the Osteoporosis Research Center of the Institute of Medical Physics, University of Erlangen-Nürnberg (Germany). Under the terms of this agreement, Prof. Engelke will provide computed tomography (CT) datasets with segmented femurs for use in the development of volumetric reference data on the Hologic QDR (quantitative digital radiography) Discovery system.

"Clinicians have long sought the next generation of osteoporosis assessment tools to better predict femur fracture risk,” commented Brad Herrington, Hologic vice president of Skeletal Health Imaging. "We believe that the research of Prof. Engelke and his colleague Willi A. Kalender will help bring us closer to the commercialization of a low-dose tomographic assessment of bone density and geometry to discern bone structure and strength.”

"Hologic has realized the importance of 3D [three-dimensional] femur analysis to the measurement of bone strength,” said Prof. Engelke. "Clinical and research applications with CT so far have been limited by the high radiation dose necessary and the difficulty in accurate and reproducible segmentation of bone from soft tissue. While we have solved the 3D segmentation problem, a lower dose method of determining the three dimensional structure of the femur would have a definite attraction to the researcher and clinician alike.”

"Our hope is that tomographic 3D analysis will ultimately be available on all Discovery systems with rotational C-arm capability,” Mr. Herrington noted. "The exclusive rotating C-arm capability of Discovery affords maximized patient comfort and efficient workflow by allowing the patient to remain in a comfortable supine position for the entire range of bone density procedures including instant vertebral assessment.”



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University of Erlangen-Nürnberg