Osteoporosis is an underdiagnosed and often neglected disease, with a huge impact on social costs arising from fracture management that could be avoided with an appropriate prevention programme. The approach to diagnosis is not always efficacious and cost-optimised, often suggesting instrumental densitometry in a somehow irrational way.

The objective of this study is to evaluate the introduction and use of a simple score system, in order to optimise the access to instrumental diagnosis with quantitative ultrasound (QUS) densitometric technique for those patients at risk.

We used the OSIRIS score system questionnaire in order to have a simple tool to manage the osteoporosis screening of patients in our centre from January to December 2003 (more than 2000 patients in total). The score risk derived for each patient was used to recommend the instrumental densitometric measurement (heel QUS) and the need for vertebral X-ray scan and morphometric evaluation. In a further analysis on a more limited number of patients, we searched for correlations between densitometry with other score systems (O.R.A.I.,N.O.F.,S.C.O.R.E.,A.B.O.N.E.) and with pre-existing fragility fractures (vertebral and non-vertebral).

Our data suggest that a correlation exists between OSIRIS score risk and heel QUS densitometric T-score, suggesting the usefulness and validity of such a score system in order to optimise the access to instrumental diagnosis of osteoporosis.