Radiology Forums

Nita · Joined: 30 Aug 2005 Posts: 1

Hi,
I'm new here. I'm hoping for some info, and maybe some advice. I have been doing echocardiograms for 13 years. I love the work, but it has taken a toll on my back. My degree is in Cardiovascular Technology. I have an interest in Densitometry and would like to learn more about this procedure. My main question is, do I need a degree in Xray in order to train for
densitometry? I have seen programs online that teach it, but I don't know if I would qualify to take the certification exam without a degree in
xray. I would also like some suggestions for other jobs in medical imaging, etc, for someone who can't do heavy lifting, pushing large equipment, or anything too physically demanding. Thank you.
Nita

RadMaster · Site Admin Joined: 09 Aug 2004 Posts: 162

You need to be a registered technologist in most states to do bone densitometry. It's a radiation based exam and controlled by law.

xraymeme · Joined: 13 Sep 2007 Posts: 2

I live in Fl and u do not have to be an xray tech to do DXA and u have no classes just an 8 hour training session with the company who puts the machine in or some one that works on the machine can train u it is extreamly easy

dxaman · Posted: Fri Nov 30, 2007 10:42 am Post subject: DXA is not easy to do well

I have been performing bone desnitometry for 20 years, and I can tell you that doing it well enough to be useful is much harder than it looks.

While anyone can slap the patient on the DXA table and press scan, and get a printout with very little training, the scan is worthless to a physician who wants to use that scan as a baseline for monitoring the patient.

Positioning errors and subsequent analysis errors (comutpers are stupid!) may only amount to 5-10% differences in the bone density values. WHile the difference between a T-score of 0 (middle of the normal range) and -2.5 (ostoeoporosis threshold) is about 30%, and even a stooge is unlikely to get a value that misdiagnoses a patient, the maximum change in BMD over a two year period is only 3%, so a 5-10% precision error at baseline makes it impossible to use for following patients.

Very few centers that do DXA know what their precision errors and LSC (least significant change) values are, let alone have values good enough for monitoring patients. In Illinois, where we also have no radiation safety requirements for DXA users, about 80% of the cases from other centers that I am asked to critique for validity by our osteoporosis doctors have substantial errors. Most often it is from large radiology departments at hospitals (even university teaching centers) where the process is "see one, do one teach one" and the radiologists never look at the images or even know enough to tell a good analysis from a bad one. (But they sure know how to bill for their "interpretation".
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Data sufficiently tortured always confesses

xray-ted · Joined: 12 Jan 2008 Posts: 25

Great post dxaman! These quick courses always sacrafice quality issues for length of course work.
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