prevalence and type of errors in dualenergy xray absorptiometry objectives pitfalls in dualenergy xray absorptiometry dxa are common our aim was to assess rate and type of errors in dxa examinationsreports evaluating a consecutive series of dxa images of patients examined elsewhere and later presenting to our institution for a followup dxamethods after ethics committee approval a radiologist retrospectively reviewed all dxa images provided by patients presenting at our institution for a new dxa errors were categorized as patient positioning pp data analysis da artefacts andor demographicsresults of 2476 patients 1198 had no previous dxa while 793 had a previous dxa performed in our institution the remaining 485 20 patients entered the study 38 men and 447 women mean age standard deviation 689 years previous dxa examinations were performed at a total of 37 centres of 485 reports 451 93 had at least one error out of a total of 558 errors distributed as follows 441 79 were da 66 12 pp 39 7 artefacts and 12 2 demographicsconclusions about 20 of patients did not undergo dxa at the same institution as previously more than 90 of dxa presented at least one error mainly of da international society for clinical densitometry guidelines are very poorly adoptedkey points more than 90 of dxa examinationsreports presented one or more errors about 80 of errors are related to image data analysis errors in dxa examinations may have potential implications for patients management