ERRORS IN LONGITUDINAL MEASUREMENTS OF BONE-MINERAL - EFFECT OF SOURCE STRENGTH IN SINGLE AND DUAL PHOTON-ABSORPTIOMETRY

  • 1 November 1987
    • journal article
    • research article
    • Vol. 28  (11) , 1751-1757
Abstract
The effect of changing strength during the useful life of a radiation source was evaluated in studies performed on four dual photon (DPA) and two single photon (SPA) bone absorptiometry instruments. Two DPA units and one SPA unit did not show any systematic dependence of measured bone mineral content or bone mineral areal density (BMD) on source activity when evaluated over an entire source life. One DPA and one SPA instrument, however, showed significant time trends associated with source activity. The fourth DPA instrument had a significant linear decrease in BMD over a source life in the automatic mode but performed better in the manual mode.