What Does My Dexa Scan Report Indicate?

Posted on Thu, 30 Apr 2015

Medically reviewed by Ask A Doctor - 24x7 Medical Review Team

Thu, 30 Apr 2015 Answered on

Wed, 20 May 2015 Last reviewed on

Question : Hello: My Best friends mom just had a Dexa Scan with these following results: T score of -2.6 SD at the hip and -2.4 SD at the lumbar spine. She had a hysterectomy 8 years ago and was/is not on hormone replacement therapy. She is 5 foot 2 and weights 102 pounds. Her mother died at the age of 62 from complications of a hip fracture and has a sister who was just diagnosed with metastatic breast cancer at age 58. Can you please tell me what do you think is the best plan for her and is her diagnosis considered osteoarthritis? Thank you.

Answered by Dr. Dr. Naveen Kumar Sharma (27 minutes later)

Brief Answer:
She is having osteoporosis

Detailed Answer:
Hello,
I have studied your case. She is having severe osteoporosis as her score is below minus 2.5 . She needs to be treated with following medicines.
1. Hormone therapy is not needed as it has its own complications.
2. She should take calcium and vitamin D 3 daily.
3. Parathormone injection daily for three months and followed by dexa scan.
4. Calcitonin nasal spray.
After three months of above mentioned therapy her symptoms will improve. She will be pain free. Her dexa score should be 0 or in plus 2.5. It will also helps in arthritis pain.
I hope this answer will be useful for you. let me know if there is any other followup questions.
Thanks

Above answer was peer-reviewed by : Dr. Chakravarthy Mazumdar