Women's imaging vendor Hologic said it has received a medical license from Health Canada for its Horizon dual-energy x-ray absorptiometry (DEXA) imaging platform.
The Horizon family of systems is designed to aid the assessment of osteoporosis, cardiovascular disease, and obesity, according to Hologic. Horizon was launched in the U.S. and other international markets in 2013.
Horizon includes the following:
- A single-energy femur exam to visualize potential atypical femur fractures that can occur as a result of bisphosphonate use
- High-definition instant vertebral assessment (IVA-HD) to improve detection of vertebral fractures
- An abdominal aortic calcification feature through Hologic's IVA-HD technology to visualize abdominal aortic calcifications, a predictor of cardiovascular disease
- Advanced body composition assessment with visceral fat estimation to help evaluate metabolic health
![Representative example of a 16-year-old male patient with underlying X-linked adrenoleukodystrophy. (A, B) Paired anteroposterior (AP) chest radiograph and dual-energy x-ray absorptiometry (DXA) report shows lumbar spine (L1 through L4) areal bone mineral density (BMD). The DXA report was reformatted for anonymization and improved readability. The patient had low BMD (Z score ≤ −2.0). (C) Model (chest radiography [CXR]–BMD) output shows the predicted raw BMD and Z score in comparison with the DXA reference standard, together with interpretability analyses using Shapley additive explanations (SHAP) and gradient-weighted class activation maps. The patient was classified as having low BMD, consistent with the reference standard. AM = age-matched, DEXA = dual-energy x-ray absorptiometry, RM2 = room 2, SNUH = Seoul National University Hospital, YA = young adult.](https://img.auntminnie.com/mindful/smg/workspaces/default/uploads/2026/04/ai-children-bone-density.0snnf2EJjr.jpg?auto=format%2Ccompress&dpr=2&fit=crop&h=167&q=70&w=250)
