RELATIONSHIP OF SPINAL FRACTURE TO BONE-DENSITY, TEXTURAL, AND ANTHROPOMETRIC PARAMETERS

To investigate risk factors for spinal fracture, we studied the relati onship between the prevalence of asymptomatic spinal fracture and vari ous morphological measures including spinal bone mineral density (BMD) in women, A total of 122 women ranging in age from 55 to 79 years wer e studied. The group consisted of 46 women aged 55-59 years (18 with f racture), 51 women aged 60-69 years (26 with fracture), and 26 women a ged 70-79 years (14 with fracture). BMD of cortical and trabecular bon e from L1 to L3 was measured using quantitative computed tomography (Q CT). Run-length analysis was applied to evaluate the spinal trabecular textural features using CT images; the texture indices which represen t the mean width of trabeculae (the T-texture) and that of intertrabec ular spaces (the I-texture) were obtained. Anthropometric factors incl uding body weight and height, psoas muscle area, and vertebral bone vo lume were measured using CT images. Among the various factors, trabecu lar BMD in women aged 55-69 years showed the highest odds ratio for th e presence of fracture per standard deviation (SD) decrease in bone de nsity, However, in women aged 70-79 years, the highest odds ratio was observed for trabecular texture index but not for trabecular BMD. The I-texture in women aged 55-59 years, the muscle area in women aged 60- 69 years, and cortical BMD and muscle area in women aged 70-79 years w ere also considered significantly related to the risk of fracture.