GE Medical Systems of Waukesha, WI, has received Food and Drug Administration 501(k) clearance to market its advanced hip assessment software package.
The package includes a new measurement called hip axis length (HAL) designed to improve the ability to assess the risk of osteoporotic hip fracture, GE said. While bone mineral density is the current gold standard for risk assessment, the hip axis length measurement adds geometric information that improves the ability of dual-energy x-ray absorptiometry (DEXA) to predict the occurrence of hip fracture in post-menopausal women.
Studies have shown that HAL combined with DEXA enables doctors to stratify patients at the highest risk for fracture, according to Ken Faulkner, Ph.D., chief scientist for GE Medical Systems Lunar, the company's bone densitometry arm.
The software package will be marketed on the Prodigy Vision bone densitometer, a fanbeam system designed to accurately measure hip geometry. Reconstruction algorithms adapted from CT have improved the accuracy of the latest generation of fanbeam densitometers, GE said.
By AuntMinnie.com staff writersAugust 30, 2001
Copyright © 2001 AuntMinnie.com
