By Gene Emery NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Older women with thin
bones should be screened every year and those with denser bones
can safely wait up to 17 years to have their next bone mineral
density test, according to new research. Current recommendations
have relied on bone mineral density readings to try to predict
the speed at which bones weaken with time, said lead author Dr.
Margaret Gourlay of the University of North Carolina at Chapel
Hill School of Medicine. "This is the first U.S. study to do it
based on patients." Based on results from 4,957 women who were
studied for 15 years, the report, "makes a major contribution
toward filling a significant knowledge gap in the field of
osteoporosis," said Dr. Margery Gass, executive director of the
North American Menopause Society, whose guidelines for brittle
bone disease suggest testing postmenopausal women every two to
five years. About 10 million Americans over 50, most of them
women, have osteoporosis, according to the National Institutes
of Health. The c