Femoral Neck Box Includes Part of the Ischium
In this image, the femoral neck box includes a portion of the ischium.

In this image, the ischium is deleted so that the femoral neck box data may be used. The length of the femoral neck box has now been changed to the default of 49 pixels.

On the analysis on the left, there is a portion of the ischium in the femoral neck box. The correct analysis is to paint out the ischium so that there is no ischium in the femoral neck box region of interest. The analysis on the right paints out the ischium so that the femoral neck box can be used and the femoral neck BMD is lower. There are many ways to paint out the ischium and drawing a straight line across is probably the most reproducible method of omitting the ischium. In the example on the right, a portion of the ischium is carved out, which would be difficult to reproduce on future scans.
Sarah L Morgan, MD, RD, CCD, The University of Alabama at Birmingham
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