Relationship of thoracic kyphosis to lumbar bone density

This study examined the association between thoracic kyphosis derived from rasterstereographic measurement of back shape and lumbar bone mineral densi ty (BMD) in 31 female subjects. Back shape imaging was performed following routine lumbar densitometry utilising dual energy X-ray absorptiometry. Tho racic kyphosis parameters were moderately correlated with mean BMD when sec ond order polynomial regression models were fitted to the dataset. The asso ciation between accentuation of kyphosis and reductions in BMD was further confirmed following conversion of mean BMD values to age-matched Z-scores. These data conform to previous studies investigating radiographic indices o f thoracic curvature and clinical lumbar BMD. Non-invasive examination of t horacic kyphosis may hence complement other existing methods for detecting early indicators of spinal osteoporosis.