Should Q-CT Be the Gold Standard for Detecting Spinal Osteoporosis?

Study Design. Prospective comparative study. Objective. Refinement of the guidelines for screening of osteoporosis and considering quantitative computed tomography (Q-CT) for detecting spinal osteoporosis. Summary of Background Data. Spinal osteoporosis is often underestimated and under-evaluated due to either lack of availability of the diagnostic modality or lack of awareness about the possibility of overestimation by dual X-ray absorptiometry (DXA) scan. There is a need for reconsidering osteoporosis evaluation with a site specific and patient specific inclination. Methods. Post-menopausal women that underwent bone mineral density (BMD) evaluation from January-2018 to December-2020 with either Q-CT or DXA were evaluated. Comparison studies of the distribution of age and T-scores of the bone densities obtained from the two study groups: age-matched, sex-matched, and common skeletal site of interest (L1-4 vertebrae) were performed. Mann–Whitney U test, correlation and regression analyses were performed and bell curves were plotted. Results. Of the 718 women evaluated, 447 underwent Q-CT and 271 underwent DXA. There was no significant difference among the age distribution of the two study groups (P-value > 0.05). The mean and mode T-scores obtained by Q-CT and DXA were found to be –2.71, –3.8 and –1.63, –1.7 respectively. A highly significant difference in the T-scores was observed in the Q-CT and DXA groups (P-value 
Source: Spine - Category: Orthopaedics Tags: DIAGNOSTICS Source Type: research