Excelsior Correspondent
SRINAGAR, Mar 28: Doctors Association Kashmir (DAK) today said that Government run hospitals in Jammu and Kashmir are without the facility of DEXA scan which is routinely used in clinical practice to detect bone loss.
Describing it as an essential diagnostic tool, the DAK president Dr Nisar-ul-Hassan said that the patients suffer immensely due to lack of DEXA scan which is an established standard for measuring bone mineral density.
“Patients are referred to private clinics to get the test done, an option available to only those who can afford. Dual-energy x-ray absoptiometry (DEXA) is the gold standard for diagnosing osteoporosis, a condition that causes bones to become thinner, more fragile and more likely to break,” he said.
The DAK president said it is effective in tracking the effects of treatment for osteoporosis and is also an accurate estimate of fracture risk.
Osteoporosis is a silent disease and does not cause any symptoms until a bone is broken, the DAK president said, adding that due to the unavailability of the bone density testing, we do not know the magnitude of the disease in our population.
The DAK president said Kashmiri population is more prone to osteoporosis because of lower bone density, vitamin D deficiency and low consumption of calcium-rich foods. The situation is compounded by unnecessary and scandalous hysterectomies (surgical removal of uterus) which are rampant in Kashmir as there is no clinical audit, he said.
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