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Study design This was a retrospective cohort study. Purpose We evaluated the predictive value of the Spinal Instability Neoplastic Score (SINS) system for spinal adverse events (SAEs) in patients with single spinal metastatic tumor. Overview of literature The SINS system was developed to assess spinal instability in patients with single metastatic spinal tumor. However, the system's potential predictive value for SAEs has been partially studied. Methods This system was applied to a retrospective cohort of 78 patients with single spinal metastatic tumors. The patients underwent surgical treatment and were postoperatively followed up for at least 2 years or until death. The attribution of each score and total SINS to SAE (vertebral compression fracture [VCF] and spinal cord compression [SCC]) occurrence was assessed using the Cox proportional hazards model. Results SAEs occurred on average 7 months after diagnosis of spinal metastasis. The mean survival rate post diagnosis was 43 months. Multivariate analysis using the Cox proportional hazards model revealed that the pain (p =0.029) and spinal alignment (p =0.001) scores were significantly related to VCF occurrence, whereas the pain (p =0.008) and posterolateral involvement (p =0.009) scores were related to SCC occurrence. Conclusions Among the components of the SINS system, while pain and spinal alignment showed a significant association with VCF occurrence, pain and posterolateral involvement showed association with SCC occurrence.

Background Studies have reported on the usefulness of whole spine magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) in evaluating specific diseases such as spinal tuberculosis, spinal trauma, spondyloarthropathies, and multiple myeloma. In studies concerning degenerative spinal disease, sample sizes were small and some did not provide information on how symptomatic coexisting lesions were treated. We evaluated the types and prevalence of coexisting spine lesions found on whole spine T2 sagittal screening performed at the time of routine cervical and lumbar spine MRI and evaluated the efficacy of such screening in degenerative diseases of the cervical and lumbar spine. Methods We reviewed 1,757 and 2,266 consecutive cases where whole spine T2 sagittal screening had been performed with routine cervical and lumbar spine MRI, respectively, in patients with cervical and lumbar spinal degenerative diseases. Coexisting spine lesions were documented and statistical analysis was performed to investigate significant differences according to sex, age, and initial diagnosis. Electronic medical records were reviewed to determine whether additional interventions were necessary following such findings. Results We reviewed 1,252 and 1,689 consecutive cases of routine cervical and lumbar spine MRI respectively, with whole spine T2 sagittal screening. Of the 1,252, 419 (33.5%) patients with cervical spinal degenerative disease had coexisting lesions in the thoracolumbar spine. Patients with ligament ossification disease of the cervical spine showed a higher prevalence of coexisting spine lesions. Sixty of the 419 (14.3%) patients with coexisting spine lesions warranted additional intervention or surgical treatment. Four hundred and eighty-one of 1,689 (28.5%) patients with lumbar degenerative disease had coexisting spine lesions in the cervicothoracic spine. Forty-eight of the 481 (10.0%) patients with coexisting spine lesions warranted additional intervention. In both patient groups, older patients showed a significantly higher prevalence of coexisting spine lesions than younger patients. Conclusion Considering the minimal extra time and cost in performing whole spine screening, its application to routine spine MRI can be considered in evaluating cervical and lumbar spinal degenerative diseases., Graphical Abstract

Preoperative identification of aggressiveness is important for the establishment of a treatment strategy in patients with soft-tissue sarcoma (STS). We compared the predictive values of various metabolic parameters derived from PET/CT with (18)F-FDG, including maximal standardized uptake value (SUVmax), total lesion glycolysis (TLG) and metabolic tumour volume (MTV).A total of 66 patients with STS who had undergone FDG PET/CT before tumour resection were reviewed retrospectively. We determined SUVmax, TLG and MTV to compare their value in predicting disease progression, which was defined as local recurrence and metastases. Receiver operating characteristic curve (ROC) analysis was used to compare the accuracy. Univariate and multivariate analyses of conventional clinicopathological variables were used to compare the reliability of the metabolic parameters.TLG exhibited greater accuracy than SUVmax or MTV in ROC analysis (area under curve, AUC, 0.802, 0.726 and 0.681, respectively). The cut-off values for disease progression derived from the AUC data were TLG 250; SUVmax 6.0, and MTV 40 cm(3). In univariate analysis, TLG (250) was a more significant predictive factor than SUVmax and MTV (P0.001, P = 0.031 and P = 0.022, respectively). TLG was the only meaningful metabolic parameter in the multivariate analysis (P = 0.008) other than presence of metastasis at diagnosis (P = 0.003).TLG is a more accurate predictor of disease progression than SUVmax or MTV. TLG enables accurate preoperative assessment of aggressiveness comparable with conventional clinicopathological parameters.