Letter

Bone mineral densitometry in clinical practice

BMJ 1995; 311 doi: 10.1136/bmj.311.7015.1300b (Published 11 November 1995)
Cite this as: BMJ 1995;311:1300.3

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  1. Andrew Simmons,
  2. Sally Barrington,
  3. Michael J O'Doherty,
  4. Anthony J Coakley
  1. Lecturer Senior registrar Consultant Director East Kent Osteoporosis Screening and Research Unit, Kent and Canterbury Hospital, Canterbury, Kent CT1 3NG

    Differences in reference values are important

    EDITOR,--J E Compston and colleagues emphasise the merits of assessing bone density in patients relative to that in young adults (the T score) rather than relative to that in controls matched for age (the Z score), on the basis of the recommendations of an expert panel of the World Health Organisation.1 Consensus on this issue, however, is still lacking,2 and the T score has not been widely used clinically in Britain, where comparisons with controls matched for age still dominate.

    Among the limitations of bone densitometry …

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