Osteopenia
Overview
The term literally means “poverty of bone”.
In radiology, it is a non-specific imaging finding, seen on radiograph or CT as decreased bone density (do not confuse this with the WHO densitometric term “osteopenia” used in DXA criteria).
It is a preferred descriptive term to use in reports instead of older or less precise words (e.g. demineralisation, undermineralisation, deossification), and instead of labelling a patient with osteoporosis, which has stricter diagnostic criteria (DXA, clinical fractures, etc.).
(You can mentally keep: “Radiographic osteopenia ≠ DXA ‘osteopenia’ (T-score −1 to −2.5)”.)
Ddx of osteopenia
