Hannibal Regional Radiology has expanded its health and wellness services available to men and women with the addition of the Horizon® DEXA system from Hologic®. The imaging technology of the Horizon DEXA system provides superb image quality with advanced diagnostic tools to support early detection and treatment of osteoporosis and provide a full body, Advanced Body Composition assessment.
Osteoporosis is a growing healthcare crisis affecting millions of women and men worldwide. 77% of American women with osteoporosis are undiagnosed (and therefore untreated). Fortunately, osteoporosis is detectable and treatable and testing is safe and non-invasive. Horizon enables new dimensions in care, including greater insights into biomechanical strength, visualization of calcification in the abdominal aorta that can indicate heart disease, lumbar spine and proximal femur studies, BMD measurements of the entire skeleton, atypical femur fracture (AFF) assessment, and many other clinical applications.
The Advanced Body Composition assessment provides detailed information of body fat, lean mass, bone mass, and visceral fat – the metabolically active fat often associated with diabetes and other metabolic syndromes. It also includes a Fat Mass Index (FMI) which is an obesity classification which measure the ratio of fat mass to height squared. FMI may be better than BMI because while BMI is a measure of excess weight, FMI is a measure of excess fat. BMI may misclassify muscular subjects as overweight or individuals with low body weight as normal even if they have high levels of fat.
“We all know that the scale falls short in gauging our health, but have you ever thought about what it measures? Measuring our weight on a scale only tells us the force of the gravitational pull on our body weight. It does not tell us how much fat, bone, or muscle that we have. Additionally, based on the number on the scale it is hard to determine if we are healthy, in shape, losing fat, or if we are on the right track in our workouts. The Advanced Body Composition assessment scan takes as little as three minutes, gives an individual breakdown of fat mass, lean mass, and percentage fat for each body region. This helps individuals or trainers to fine-tune their competitive workout regimens. Additionally, the Advanced Body Composition measures Visceral Adipose Tissue (VAT), a deep visceral fat that is often associated with diabetes mellitus, dyslipidemia, hypertension, impaired fasting glucose, impaired glucose tolerance, and metabolic syndrome. With the VAT assessment, practitioners would have a convenient way to estimate a patient’s visceral fat in the abdominal region, allowing them a unique understanding of these potential disease processes that may place certain patients within a higher risk category. We are excited that individuals, trainers, and practitioners now have a new tool to help guide them to better health.” Jennifer Akers, Director of Radiology at Hannibal Regional.
To set up an Osteoporosis Screening or Advanced Body Composition Assessment appointment, please call the scheduling department at 573-248-5688.
Pictured are Dr. Edward Bass and Jennifer Akers, Director of Radiology.