Plain radiographs can be useful in estimating lumbar bone density.
On standard lateral roentgenograms of the lumbar spine, a decrease in bone density is said to be detectable only after a bone loss of about 40%. To evaluate this view, we compared findings on plain films with bone mineral content of L1 determined by quantitative computed tomography in 80 healthy subjects with a mean age of 60 years. The highest correlations with bone mineral content were found for the criteria "vertebral density versus soft tissue" (r = 0.5, p less than 0.0001), the "amount of trabeculations" (r = 0.49, p less than 0.0001), and for the "overall" estimate of osteopenia in the vertebra (r = 0.55, p less than 0.0001). Surprisingly, these three radiographic criteria proved to be most helpful in subjects with bone mineral content above 110 mg/cm3 (nonosteoporotic range). We conclude that lateral radiographs of the lumbar spine can provide a rough estimate of bone density in nonosteoporotic subjects which may be helpful in determining when further analysis with more precise methods is appropriate.
Michel
B A
BA
Department of Medicine, Stanford University School of Medicine, CA.
Lane
N E
NE
Jones
H H
HH
Fries
J F
JF
Bloch
D A
DA
D015519:Bone Density; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008161:Lumbosacral Region; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D010024:Osteoporosis / Q000378:metabolism; D012016:Reference Values; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity; D013131:Spine / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging*; D014057:Tomography, X-Ray Computed