Vertebral Bone Quality Score As a New Tool for Osteoporosis Diagnosis in Patients Undergoing Lumbosacral Fusion Surgery: A Single Center Cohort Study Publisher



A Najafi ARVIN ; A Baradaran Bagheri ALI ; D Hadavi DORSA ; A Mobedi AIDIN ; S Azarsina SALMAN ; P Chaghamirzayi POURIA
Source: European Journal of Translational Myology Published:2024

Abstract

Osteoporosis, a common bone disorder, increases fracture and spinal surgery complications risk. This study evaluates the potential of the Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI)-based Vertebral Bone Quality (VBQ) score as an alternative for assessing bone density in lumbosacral fusion surgery patients. In a prospective cohort study from April 2021 to November 2022, 134 patients with lumbar degenerative diseases underwent lumbar Dual-Energy X-ray Absorptiometry (DXA) and lumbosacral non-contrast T1-weighted MRI. VBQ scores were calculated and analyzed using IBM SPSS Statistics and MedCalc software. Osteopenia/Osteoporosis patients exhibited significantly higher VBQ scores than normal bone mineral density patients (3.37±0.51 vs. 2.99±0.44, P<0.001). VBQ correlated significantly with lumbar DXA T scores (r value= -0.415, p<0.001). Receiver Operating Characteristic (ROC) analysis showed VBQ AUC values of 0.730 (CI 95% 0.647-0.803, P<0.001) and 0.839 (CI 95% 0.765-0.897, P<0.001) for Osteopenia/Osteoporosis and osteoporosis diagnosis, respectively. The study suggests MRI-derived VBQ scores may benefit pre-lumbosacral fusion surgery bone density assessment, potentially improving patient care and aiding osteoporosis detection in spinal surgery candidates. © 2025 Elsevier B.V., All rights reserved.