Optical Bone Densitometry
for osteoporosis screening

X-ray is currently used for osteoporosis diagnosis, including dual energy X-ray absorptiometry (DXA) and quantitative computed tomography (QCT). However, it is difficult to utilize these devices for the early detection of osteoporosis, which only has a moderate decrease in bone mineral density (BMD), due to their large size and potential harmfulness, indicating the necessity for a compact and safe device for screening of osteoporosis. Near-infrared light is useful for non-invasive measurement of different types of bio-information and is utilized in the medical field. We propose a novel optical bone densitometry method that decreases the effect of optical scattering in the skin by detection of quasi-ballistic light. (from Introduction in "Kaname Miura, Hidenori Matsubara, Shigeo M. Tanaka, Development of optical bone densitometry using near-infrared light, Journal of Mechanical Engineering, Vol 5-4, 60-67, 2018")

This device's short 10-second measurement time reduces the burden on patients and medical personnel, and its non-contact nature offers advantages in terms of hygiene. While the existing calcaneal QUS method does not reflect the state of the subject's trunk bones, this device is expected to provide superior measurement accuracy using a machine learning algorithm that uses the trunk bone's DXA data as the teacher data. This device uses a near-infrared laser and proposes a new method to evaluate bone mineral density based on the intensity distribution of reflected and scattered light that appears on the skin when irradiated to the wrist. Clinical research is currently underway at a hospital in Bangkok, Thailand, and is being optimized by machine learning.