Sorci OR, Madi R, Kim SM, Batzdorf AS, Alecxih A, Hornyak JN, Patel S, Rajapakse CS. Normative vertebral deformity measurements in a clinically relevant population using magnetic resonance imaging. World J Radiol 2024; 16(12): 749-759 [DOI: 10.4329/wjr.v16.i12.749]
Corresponding Author of This Article
Rashad Madi, MD, Postdoctoral Fellow, Department of Radiology, University of Pennsylvania, 3450 Hamilton Walk, Philadelphia, PA 19104, United States. rashad.madi@pennmedicine.upenn.edu
Research Domain of This Article
Radiology, Nuclear Medicine & Medical Imaging
Article-Type of This Article
Retrospective Cohort Study
Open-Access Policy of This Article
This article is an open-access article which was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
World J Radiol. Dec 28, 2024; 16(12): 749-759 Published online Dec 28, 2024. doi: 10.4329/wjr.v16.i12.749
Normative vertebral deformity measurements in a clinically relevant population using magnetic resonance imaging
Olivia R Sorci, Rashad Madi, Sun Min Kim, Alexandra S Batzdorf, Austin Alecxih, Julia N Hornyak, Sheenali Patel, Chamith S Rajapakse
Olivia R Sorci, Rashad Madi, Sun Min Kim, Alexandra S Batzdorf, Austin Alecxih, Julia N Hornyak, Sheenali Patel, Chamith S Rajapakse, Department of Radiology, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA 19104, United States
Author contributions: Sorci OR, Madi R, Kim SM, Batzdorf AS, Alecxih A, Hornyak JN, Patel S, and Rajapakse CS contributed to the design of the research study, performing the research, analyzing the data, and writing the manuscript; and all authors reviewed and edited the final manuscript.
Institutional review board statement: This study was approved by the Institutional Review Board at the University of Pennsylvania (Approval No. 824040).
Informed consent statement: Patients were not required to provide informed consent for this study because the analysis used anonymous clinical data that were obtained after patient had agreed to treatment with written consent.
Conflict-of-interest statement: All the authors report no relevant conflicts of interest for this article.
Data sharing statement: The dataset used and analyzed during the current study is available from the corresponding author at rashad.madi@pennmedicine.upenn.edu upon request.
STROBE statement: The authors have read the STROBE Statement-checklist of items, and the manuscript was prepared and revised according to the STROBE Statement-checklist of items.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article that was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: https://creativecommons.org/Licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Corresponding author: Rashad Madi, MD, Postdoctoral Fellow, Department of Radiology, University of Pennsylvania, 3450 Hamilton Walk, Philadelphia, PA 19104, United States. rashad.madi@pennmedicine.upenn.edu
Received: March 28, 2024 Revised: October 15, 2024 Accepted: December 12, 2024 Published online: December 28, 2024 Processing time: 273 Days and 12.5 Hours
Abstract
BACKGROUND
Osteoporosis is the leading cause of vertebral fractures. Dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry (DXA) and radiographs are traditionally used to detect osteoporosis and vertebral fractures/deformities. Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) can be utilized to detect the relative severity of vertebral deformities using three-dimensional information not available in traditional DXA and lateral two-dimensional radiography imaging techniques.
AIM
To generate normative vertebral parameters in women using MRI and DXA scans, determine the correlations between MRI-calculated vertebral deformities and age, DXA T-scores, and DXA Z-scores, and compare MRI vertebral deformity values with radiography values previously published in the literature.
METHODS
This study is a retrospective vertebral morphometric analysis conducted at our institution. The patient sample included MR images from 1638 female patients who underwent both MR and DXA imaging between 2005 and 2014. Biconcavity, wedge, crush, anterior height (Ha)/posterior height (Hp), and middle height (Hm)/posterior height values were calculated from the MR images of the patient’s vertebrae. Associations between vertebral deformity values, patient age, and DXA T-scores were analyzed using Spearman correlation. The MRI-derived measurements were compared with radiograph-based calculations from population-based data compiled from multiple studies.
RESULTS
Age was positively correlated with lumbar Hm/Hp (P = 0.04) and thoracic wedge (P = 0.03) and biconcavity (P = 0.001) and negatively correlated with thoracic Ha/Hp (P = 0.002) and Hm/Hp (P = 0.001) values. DXA T-scores correlated positively with lumbar Hm/Hp (P < 0.0001) and negatively with lumbar wedge (P = 0.046), biconcavity (P < 0.0001), and Ha/Hp (P = 0.046) values. Qualitative analysis revealed that Ha/Hp differed between MRI and radiography population-based data by no more than 0.3 and Hm/Hp by a maximum of 1.2.
CONCLUSION
Compared with traditional imaging techniques, MRI detects vertebral deformities with high accuracy and reliability. It may be a sensitive, ionizing, radiation-free tool for use in clinical settings.
Core Tip: This study provides new reference data for vertebral deformities using Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) to assess vertebral heights and deformities in women. We correlated MRI-derived measurements with age and dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry scores, revealing key insights into the progression of spinal deformities. Our results highlight the potential of MRI to accurately measure vertebral deformities, offering improved diagnostic capabilities and a non-invasive approach for monitoring spinal health.
