Combination of vertebral bone quality scores from different magnetic resonance imaging sequences improves prognostic value for the estimation of osteoporosis

Recent findings revealed a correlation between vertebral bone quality based on T1-weighted (VBQThe aims of the study were to confirm the correlation between VBQThis was a retrospective cross-sectional study.The sample consisted of patients older than 18 years, who received treatment at a level-one university spine center of the German Spine Society for degenerative or traumatic reasons in 2017-2021.The outcome measures were the correlation of VBQs from different MRI sequences with vBMD and the association of VBQs with osteopenia/osteoporosis.Patients' VBQ was calculated based on the signal intensities of the vertebral bodies L1-4 in T1-, T2-, and STIR-weighted MRI. The VBQ was standardized according to the signal intensity of the cerebrospinal fluid. The vBMD was determined using data from a calibrated scanner (SOMATOM Definition AS+) and processed with CliniQCT (Mindways Software, Inc., USA). Groups were divided according to vBMD into the following groups: (I) osteoporosis/osteopenia (120 mg/mWe included 136 patients (women: 56.6%) in the study (69.7 ± 15.0 years). According to vBMD, 108 patients (79.4%) had osteoporosis/osteopenia. Women were affected significantly more often than men (p = .045) and had significantly higher VBQThis study confirms a significant correlation between VBQ