REMS technique: Future perspectives in an Academic Hospital

Currently, dual X-ray absorptiometry (DXA) is the most widely used method for diagnosing osteoporosis through bone mineral density (BMD) assessments on lumbar spine and proximal femur. An innovative echo-graphic approach for osteoporosis diagnosis, directly applicable on both femoral neck and lumbar spine, has been recently introduced and clinically validated through single-center and multicenter studies. This developed approach has been subsequently defined as Radiofrequency Echographic Multi Spectrometry (REMS). REMS technology arouses the interest of clinicians not only for its characteristics, such as simplicity and repeatability, transportability and absence of ionizing radiation, but also because it can provide information on bone tissue characteristics (elasticity, microstructure) different from the BMD measured by DEXA. Moreover, this technique could also be used in the diagnosis of different metabolic bone diseases, in patients with corticosteroid-induced osteoporosis, in diabetics, or in women treated with aromatase inhibitors, conditions in which the assessment of BMD underestimates the fracture risk. Furthermore, the absence of ionizing radiation represents a valid possibility of using REMS echography to assess bone mineral status in children.