Using QCT for the prediction of spontaneous age- and gender-specific thoracolumbar vertebral fractures and accompanying distant vertebral fractures

• Published in: BMC musculoskeletal disorders Vol. 25; no. 1; pp. 828 - 8
• Main Authors: Shen, Yuwen, Shi, Yiqiu, Gu, Xinru, Xie, Ping, Zhang, Lianwei, Wu, Linhe, Yang, Sitong, Ren, Wen, Liu, Kefu
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: London BioMed Central 19.10.2024; BioMed Central Ltd; BMC
• Subjects: Adult; Age; Age Factors; Aged; Aged, 80 and over; Analysis; Bone Density; Bone mineral density; Bones; Computed tomography; CT imaging; Density; Epidemiology; Female; Females; Fractures; Fractures, Spontaneous - diagnostic imaging; Fractures, Spontaneous - epidemiology; Fractures, Spontaneous - etiology; Gender; Gender differences; Humans; Internal Medicine; Lumbar Vertebrae - diagnostic imaging; Lumbar Vertebrae - injuries; Male; Males; Medicine; Medicine & Public Health; Middle Aged; Orthopedics; Predictive Value of Tests; Quantitative computed tomography; Rehabilitation; Retrospective Studies; Rheumatology; Sex Factors; Spinal Fractures - diagnostic imaging; Spinal Fractures - epidemiology; Spine; Spontaneous thoracolumbar vertebral fractures; Sports Medicine; Thoracic Vertebrae - diagnostic imaging; Thoracic Vertebrae - injuries; Threshold value; Tomography, X-Ray Computed; Trauma; Vertebrae; Women; China; Spontaneous thoracolumbar vertebral fractures; Threshold value; Bone mineral density; Gender; Quantitative computed tomography; Age
• ISSN: 1471-2474; 1471-2474
• DOI: 10.1186/s12891-024-07961-6

Purpose To investigate the value and age- and gender-specific threshold values of bone mineral density (BMD) by quantitative computed tomography (QCT) for the prediction of spontaneous thoracolumbar vertebral fractures and thoracolumbar junction fractures accompanying distant vertebral fractures. Methods Among the 556 patients included, 68 patients had thoracolumbar vertebral fractures (12 patients with distant vertebral fractures, 56 patients without distant vertebral fractures) and 488 patients had no vertebral fractures. All patients were grouped by gender and age. According to the principle of Youden index, the threshold values were calculated from receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curves. Results The threshold values for predicting thoracolumbar vertebral fractures were 89.8 mg/cm 3 for all subjects, 90.1 mg/cm 3 for men, and 88.6 mg/cm 3 for women. The threshold values for men aged < 60 years old and ≥ 60 years old were 117.4 mg/cm 3 and 87.5 mg/cm 3 , respectively. The threshold values for women aged < 60 years old and ≥ 60 years old were 88.6 and 68.4 mg/cm 3 , respectively. The threshold value for predicting spontaneous thoracolumbar junction fractures with distant vertebral fractures was 62.7 mg/cm 3 . Conclusions QCT provides a good ability to predict age- and gender-specific spontaneous thoracolumbar vertebral fractures, and to further predict spontaneous thoracolumbar junction fractures with distant vertebral fractures.