REMS in patients with rheumatoid arthritis
A pilot study
Bojincă, Popescu, Decianu, Dobrescu, Bălănescu, Bălănescu & Bojincă. Experimental and Therapeutic Medicine (2019). doi.org/10.3892/etm.2019.7746
225
Women studied: 106 with RA, 119 healthy controls
28.3%
Osteoporosis prevalence in RA patients vs. 13.4% in controls
Replicated
REMS results matched established DXA literature
0 Radiation
B-mode ultrasound and radiofrequency signals only
Why this study matters for your bone health
Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is one of the strongest known risk factors for osteoporosis. Chronic inflammation, glucocorticoid treatment, reduced mobility, and earlier menopause all work together to accelerate bone loss in RA patients — yet many are still diagnosed only after a fragility fracture has already occurred.
This study set out to answer a practical question: can REMS reliably detect osteoporosis in RA patients, a population where accurate, repeatable, radiation-free screening matters most? Researchers in Bucharest, Romania studied 106 post-menopausal women with RA and 119 age-matched healthy controls, scanning all of them with REMS at the spine and both femoral necks.
The results matched what decades of DXA research already show about RA and bone loss — which is exactly the point. REMS found RA patients had significantly lower bone density at the spine and hip, significantly higher FRAX-calculated fracture risk, and more than double the rate of osteoporosis compared to healthy controls (28.3% versus 13.4%).
What it means in practice: REMS was able to replicate established DXA findings in a population where accurate screening is critical — without exposing these already-vulnerable patients to radiation, and without the interference that joint changes and calcium buildup can cause on some imaging methods.
The authors also noted that a separate, larger multicenter study of 1,914 women had already shown REMS achieving greater than 90% sensitivity and specificity against DXA at both the spine and femoral neck — the same validation this study's smaller RA cohort supports.
What the study found
Four findings, in plain language.
- 1
RA patients had significantly lower bone density
REMS measured meaningfully lower spine and femoral neck bone mineral density in RA patients compared to healthy controls of the same age — consistent with what RA's inflammatory burden is known to do to bone.
- 2
Fracture risk scores were markedly higher in RA patients
Using FRAX (the Fracture Risk Assessment Tool) alongside REMS measurements, RA patients showed significantly higher 10-year risk of both major osteoporotic fracture and hip fracture than controls, at every comparison point in the study.
- 3
Osteoporosis was more than twice as common in RA patients
28.3% of RA patients met REMS's criteria for osteoporosis, compared to 13.4% of controls — a difference in line with, though slightly lower than, some other DXA-based studies of RA populations, which the authors note as reassuring rather than contradictory.
- 4
REMS replicated what DXA studies already show
The study's core conclusion: this non-ionizing, portable scanning technique reproduced the pattern of bone loss that established DXA research has long documented in RA patients — supporting REMS as a viable option for wider osteoporosis screening.
Study details
- Full title
- A novel quantitative method for estimating bone mineral density using B-mode ultrasound and radiofrequency signals — a pilot study on patients with rheumatoid arthritis
- Authors
- Violeta-Claudia Bojincă, Claudiu C. Popescu, Raluca-Daniela Decianu, Andrei Dobrescu, Șerban Mihai Bălănescu, Andra-Rodica Bălănescu, Mihai Bojincă
- Journal
- Experimental and Therapeutic Medicine (2019)
- Accepted
- 31 May 2019
- DOI
- 10.3892/etm.2019.7746
- Population
- 225 post-menopausal women: 106 with rheumatoid arthritis and 119 age-matched healthy controls, studied in Bucharest, Romania
- Comparison
- REMS-measured bone density and osteoporosis prevalence in RA patients versus healthy controls
- Key result
- Osteoporosis prevalence 28.3% (RA) vs. 13.4% (controls); RA patients had significantly lower spine and hip BMD and higher FRAX fracture risk
Bone screening that doesn't add to your risk
A REMS bone density scan takes about 15 minutes, uses no radiation, and gives results that reliably reflect what established testing methods show — an option worth asking your physician about, especially if you manage a chronic condition like rheumatoid arthritis. Serving patients across New York and New Jersey.
- No radiation at any point during the scan
- Reliable results even for patients managing chronic conditions
- Safe to repeat for monitoring as often as your physician recommends
More published research on REMS technology is collected on the research library page.