MONDAY, March 10, 2025 (HealthDay News) — Implementing opportunistic computed tomography (CT) bone density screening could increase the osteoporosis screening rate, yielding a reduction in medical costs, according to a study published in the March issue of the Journal of the American College of Radiology.

Soterios Gyftopoulos, M.D., from NYU Langone Health in New York City, and colleagues extracted data from the Medicare 5 Percent Research Identifiable Files (2015 to 2022) to examine the potential impact of opportunistic CT bone density screening.

The analysis included 2,897,040 beneficiaries, of whom 20.2 percent underwent dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry (DEXA), and 22.7 percent did not undergo DEXA but did undergo at least one CT scan that included the L1 vertebral body (67.8 and 32.2 percent without and with contrast, respectively). The researchers found that within one year of CT, there were 2,766 and 613 (0.6 and 0.3 percent) hip and 23,889 and 5,222 (5.3 and 2.5 percent) spine fragility fractures in the noncontrast and contrast CT groups, respectively. The osteoporosis screening rate would increase by 76 and 113 percent using only noncontrast CT studies and all CT studies, respectively. This study population would see a medical cost avoidance in excess of $17 million if only noncontrast CT was used to identify osteoporosis and treatment was successfully implemented in 100 percent of eligible beneficiaries. Potential annual cost avoidance for this study’s population would be nearly $100 million, and it would be $2.5 billion for all 2023 Medicare fee-for-service beneficiaries if any CT was used.

“These findings provide additional support for incorporating opportunistic CT imaging into daily clinical practice,” the authors write.

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