Quantitative diagnosis of osteoporosis using lumbar spine signal intensity in magnetic resonance imaging

Abstract

Objective: Osteoporosis is the most common metabolic bone disease that is not recognized in many elderly people. To determine the cause of low back pain, lumbosacral MRI is done for a large population who may not have gone under dual energy X-ray absorptiometry (DXA). The aim of this study was to predict bone density using lumbar spine signals in lumbosacral MRI in high risk patients for osteoporosis including post-menopausal females and calculate a threshold for a new quantitative MRI-based score to be used in estimation of lumbar spine bone mass density. Methods: 82 menopaused females, who had undergone DXA before, were selected and MRI was done within 6 months after DXA. 69 healthy females aged 20-29 years who had undergone lumbar MRI were selected as reference group. Results were analyzed and threshold and diagnostic performance of MRI-based score (M-score) on the method of T-score was calculated. Results: Negative correlation between M-score and T-score was detected. Cut off point of 2.05 was found for M-score with near sensitivity of 90 and specificity of 87 for detecting osteoporotic patients from non-osteoporotic individuals. Conclusion: M-score is a MRI-based method which can identify patients at risk of osteoporosis. Early diagnosis of osteoporosis can reduce morbidity and mortality caused by it. Advances in knowledge: The research introduced cut of points for M-score as a new MRI quantitative method to be used as an opportunistic technique for detecting osteoporotic patients.