Bone mineral density in fracture neck of femur patients: What's the significance?

BACKGROUND: The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) guidelines have advised further research is required into investigating the added prognostic value of bone mineral density (BMD) in the assessment of fracture risk with the Fracture Risk Assessment Tool (FRAX) score. AIM: To investigate the significance of BMD in fracture neck of femur patients and compare it to the outcome of the FRAX score. METHODS: Inclusion criteria for this study were all patients who underwent dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry (DXA) scan following fracture neck of femur between 2015 and 2017. Analysis of BMD, FRAX scores and patient demographic data was undertaken. RESULTS: = 0.003). CONCLUSION: This study demonstrated that BMD of the femoral neck measured by DXA scan is of added prognostic value when assessing patients for risk of fracture neck of femur in combination with the FRAX predictive scoring system.