Trabecular Bone Mineral Density Measurement Using Thoracic and Lumbar Quantitative Computed Tomography

Purpose: To evaluate the agreement of bone mineral density (BMD) between lumbar (L) and individual thoracic (T) vertebrae and identify a standard thoracic spine level for BMD assessment in cardiac computed tomography (CT) images. Materials and Methods: Three hundred subjects who underwent simultaneous chest and abdomen CT scans for clinical indications were included. A calibration phantom that extended from the first thoracic spine (T-1) to the fifth lumbar (L-5) was employed. Vertebral BMD were measured by QCT 5000 and NVivo systems. The association between three consecutive lumbar (L1-L3) and thoracic BMD (3T, initiation site equivalent to left main coronary caudally) was evaluated. Results: There was a gradual decrease in BMD values from T-1 to L-3, subsequently increasing in L-4 and L-5 in both genders. When stratified by gender, 3T BMD was significantly higher versus L1-3 BMD (156.9 versus 141.9vmg/cm(3), P < .001) for women as well as for men (164.8 versus 151.0 mg/cm(3), P < .001). There is good correlation between 3T and L1-3 BMD, the Pearson's correlation coefficients are 0.91 and 0.93 for women and men, respectively. We further analyzed the associations between L1-3 and any individual spine of T-1-L-5 and similar relationships were observed (r value, 0.62-0.98). The intraobserver, interobserver, and interscan variation measurement of thoracic quantitative CT was 2.5 (1.0, 95% CI 0.099-1.004); 2.6 (1.0, 95CI% 0.992-1.007), and 2.8% (1.0,95% 0.0994-1.008), respectively. Conclusion: The 3T BMD was highly correlated with L1-3 BMD. Thoracic BMD can be measured during cardiac and lung CT imaging without need for additional participant burden or radiation dose. This highly reproducible methodology is actively being applied to large cohort studies to evaluate the prevalence of osteoporosis and track BMD over time.