Objectives: To define what portion of older community men with what severity of radiographic osteoporotic-like vertebral fracture (OLVF) correspond to what low T-score status. Methods: There were 755 community Chinese men (age: 76.4 ± 6.7 years) with thoracic and lumbar spine radiographs, and hip and lumbar spine bone mineral density measures. For each vertebra in a subject, a score of 0, -0.5, −1, −1.5, −2, −2.5, and −3 was assigned for no OLVF or OLVF of <20%, ≥ 20–25%, ≥ 2 5%–1/3, ≥ 1/3–40%, ≥ 40%–2/3, and ≥ 2/3 vertebral height loss, respectively. OLVFss was defined as the summed score of vertebrae T4 to L5. OLVFss and T-scores were ranked from the smallest to the largest values. Results: OLVFss of −2, −2.5, −3, corresponded to a mean femoral neck T-score of −2.297 (range: -2.355∼-2.247), −2.494 (range: -2.637∼ −2.363), and −2.773 (range: -2.898∼-2.643), a mean hip T-score of-2.311 (range: -2.420∼-2.234), −2.572 (range: -2.708∼-2.432), −2.911 (range: -3.134∼-2.708), a mean lumbar spine T-score of −2.495 (range: -2.656∼-2.403), −2.931 (range: -3.255∼-2.664), and −3.369 (range: -3.525∼-3.258). The Pearson correlation value of OLVFss and T-score of femoral neck, hip and lumbar spine was r = 0.21, 0.26, and 0.22 (all P < 0.0001). Conclusions A single severe grade radiological OLVF (≥ 40% height loss) or OLVFss ≤ −2.5 suggest the subject is osteoporotic, and a single collapse grade (≥ 2/3 height loss) OLVF or OLVFss ≤ −3 meets osteoporosis diagnosis criterion. The results highlight the difficulty of diagnosing osteoporotic vertebral fractures among Chinese older men.

BACKGROUND: The importance of identifying osteoporotic vertebral endplate or/and cortex fracture (ECF), which primarily includes endplate fracture (EPF) and vertebral anterior cortex buckling, has been recognized. However, some old traumatic ECFs with healing process in the elderly may be mistaken as osteoporotic. This study analyzes the radiological features of traumatic EPF. METHODS: This was a retrospective analysis of 194 spine trauma patients with 263 vertebral fractures (mean age: 42.11 ± 9.82 years, 118 males and 76 females). All patients had traumatic EPF identified by X-ray/CT/MRI. RESULTS: The involved vertebra was mostly L1 (29.7%), followed by T12 and L2. Except EPFs involved both superior and inferior endplates (12.6%), only 1.9% involved inferior endplate alone, with the majority involved superior endplate. If each endplate was divided into five segments of equal lengths (from anterior to posterior: a1, a2, m, p2, p1), the most depressed point of superior EPFs was mostly at segment-a2 (approximately 45%), followed by segment-a1 (approximately 20%) or segment-m (approximately 20%), and very rarely at segment-p1. The upper 1/3 of anterior vertebral wall was more likely to fracture, followed by middle 1/3 of anterior wall. For posterior vertebral wall fracture, 68.5% broke the bony wall surrounding the basivertebral vain. 58.6%, 30.0%, and 11.4% of vertebral fractures had <1/5, 1/5-1/3, and >1/3 vertebral body height loss. As the extent of vertebral height loss increased, the chance of having both superior and inferior EPFs also increased; however, the chance of having inferior EPF alone did not increase. CONCLUSION Traumatic EPF features are characterized, which may help the differentiation of traumatic and osteoporotic EPFs.
Adult ; Aged ; Female ; Fractures, Bone ; Humans ; Lumbar Vertebrae/diagnostic imaging* ; Male ; Middle Aged ; Osteoporotic Fractures/diagnostic imaging* ; Radiography ; Retrospective Studies ; Spinal Fractures/diagnostic imaging* ; Thoracic Vertebrae