In medicine

Medicine

Medicine is the science and art of healing. It encompasses a variety of health care practices evolved to maintain and restore health by the prevention and treatment of illness....

, peripheral quantitative computed tomography

Computed tomography

X-ray computed tomography or Computer tomography , is a medical imaging method employing tomography created by computer processing...

, commonly abbreviated pQCT, is a type of quantitative

Quantitative property

A quantitative property is one that exists in a range of magnitudes, and can therefore be measured with a number. Measurements of any particular quantitative property are expressed as a specific quantity, referred to as a unit, multiplied by a number. Examples of physical quantities are distance,...

 computed tomography (QCT), used for making measurements of the bone mineral density (BMD) in a peripheral part of the body. It is useful for measuring bone strength.

Comparison to DXA

Unlike most other common techniques for measuring BMD, a pQCT scan is able to measure volumetric bone mineral density, plus other measures such as the stress-strain index

Stress-strain index

The stress–strain index , of a bone, is a surrogate measure of bone strength determined from a cross-sectional scan by QCT or pQCT...

 (SSI) and the geometry of the bone. DXA is only able to provide the areal bone mineral density.