title: Trabecular bone mineral density measurement using thoracic and lumbar quantitative computed tomography.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  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.
  
  
  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 L(1-3) 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 L(1-3) BMD, the Pearson's correlation coefficients are 0.91 and 0.93 for women and men, respectively. We further analyzed the associations between L(1-3) 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.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The 3T BMD was highly correlated with L(1-3) 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.
authors: Los Angeles Biomedical Research Institute at Harbor UCLA, Torrance, CA 90502, USA. mbudoff@labiomed.org
authors: Matthew J
authors: MJ
authors: Budoff
authors: Walid
authors: W
authors: Khairallah
authors: Dong
authors: D
authors: Li
authors: Yan Lin
authors: YL
authors: Gao
authors: Hussain
authors: H
authors: Ismaeel
authors: Ferdinand
authors: F
authors: Flores
authors: Janis
authors: J
authors: Child
authors: Sivi
authors: S
authors: Carson
authors: Song Shou
authors: SS
authors: Mao
mesh_terms: D000704:Analysis of Variance; D015519:Bone Density; D055424:Cardiac-Gated Imaging Techniques; D003324:Coronary Artery Disease / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008159:Lumbar Vertebrae / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging*; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D010024:Osteoporosis / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging*; D019047:Phantoms, Imaging; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012737:Sex Factors; D013904:Thoracic Vertebrae / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging*; D014057:Tomography, X-Ray Computed / Q000379:methods*