Jane Byrnes is being tested for osteoporosis. At 62, she considers herself to be in good health and not a likely candidate for the bone-thinning disease.

Byrnes- "I eat very, very well. I'm a milk drinker and I want to see if that's helped me."

Osteoporosis occurs when bones lost tissue faster than the body can rebuild it.

Dr. Stuart Weinerman- "About 60% of post-menopausal women would be considered at risk. We know about 40 percent of all white or asian women will develop fractures during a lifetime due to osteoporosis. That's a very high number."

Doctors hope this new lightweight device will provide an early cost-effective diagnosis. It doesn't replace this larger, more expensive bone scanning machine. bone densitometry uses low-dose x-rays to gauge the amount of calcium in the bone.

Weinerman- "it looks at, not so much quantity of bone like bone density does, but it looks at the structure, how well the pieces of bone are put together."

Using ultrasound, it takes ten seconds to look at the structural composition of the heel bone. The same technique is used to measure the strength of aircraft frames.

Weinerman- "Getting a low bone mass reading may help a woman make a decision about hormone replacement therapy at the time of menopause."

Jane is in good health so she was surprised to learn that the teat indicates she may indeed have some bone loss. She says she'll discuss the results with her primary care physician.