0.05). The difference of CT values among the regions of middle portion had statistical significance(F=4.539,P

Objective To demonstrate the validity of volumetric QCT and dual energy X-ray absorptiometry( DXA )in bone mineral density (BMD) measurement and compare the difference in discriminating osteoporotic postmenopansal women with and without vertebral fracture. Methods One hundred and eighteen postmenopausal women [ mean age (62. 1 ± 7.0) years ] who received thoracolumbar radiographic examination were enrolled and divided into four groups (normal, osteopenia, osteoporotic and osteoporotic fractured group) also based on their BMD value of lumbar vertebra(AP-SPINE) measured by DXA: >x- 1s,x- 1s-x-2s, 0. 05 ]. In osteoporotic groups, AP-SPINE was not correlated significantly with other variables except 3D-CORT ( R2 = 0. 189, P < 0. 01 ) ; parameters of App60,80,100,120 BV/TV% were correlated significantly with 3 D-TRAB (R2 = 0. 955, 0. 951,0. 941,0. 912, P < 0. 01, respectively) and 2 D-TRAB(R2 = 0.912, 0.910, 0.878, 0.821, P < 0.01, respectively). The precision of 3D-BMD measurement was between 0. 70%--2. 25%. Conclusions Parameters derived from 3D-vQCT technique can discriminate osteoporotic postmenopausal women with fractured vertebrae from those without fractured vertebrae, and have better the capability than DXA. Among them, 3D-INTGL was the best parameter for diagnosing serious osteoporosis. App BV/TV% could be used to reflect the lost of trabecular bone precisely and to clinically predict fracture risk.

In this paper,we analysed the plain film of spine and CT bone mineral density(BMD)of lumbar vertebral body in 63 Chinese osteoporotic women. There are 29 and 34 cases with and without fracture respectively in these patients. The average value of BMD in the fracture group was markedly lower than that of the non fracture group (P=0.0006).We suggested that 95mg/cm￣3 may be taken as an appropriate fracture threshold for Chinese elderly women, There were 18 and 45 cases with and without heterogenous calcification respectively in these patients.A significant difference of BMD was found between the two groups(P