• Lu Wang, Qian Deng, Bang Wang, Xing-Bin Li, Zhi-Jun Sha, Zhao-Rui Wang, and Ai-Bing Huang.
• Postgraduate School, Dalian Medical University, Dalian, 116000, Liaoning, China.
• Eur Spine J. 2024 Apr 1; 33 (4): 150415101504-1510.

PurposeThe study aimed to examine the consistency of vertebral bone quality (VBQ) scores for assessing osteoporosis across different etiologies and explore the predictive value of various VBQ scores for fragility vertebral fractures.MethodsPatients with fragility fractures were matched by age and sex to patients with lumbar degeneration. VBQ scores were calculated in T1- and T2-weighted magnetic resonance imaging. Differential analysis of bone quality was performed based on etiology.ResultsA total of 96 inpatients were retrospectively enrolled. VBQT1 scores were only sensitive to osteoporotic bone in degenerative group (p < 0.01), failing to identify osteoporosis in fractured group (p > 0.05). For the degenerative group, the area under the curve (AUC) using the VBQT1 scores to differentiate osteoporosis was 0.72. After controlling the confounding variables, only VBQT2 scores were significantly higher in fractured group than degenerative group, with a greater AUC of 0.82 predicting fragility fractures. VBQT1 scores moderately correlated with femoral neck T-scores in degenerative group (r = -0.45, p < 0.01) but not in fractured group (r = -0.24, p > 0.05). VBQT2 scores were not associated with femoral neck T-scores (p > 0.05).ConclusionThis study is the first to evaluate the effectiveness of VBQs scores in assessing osteoporosis post-fracture. Only non-fractured patients' bone quality is fully susceptible to VBQT1 scores. While VBQT1 scores may not correlate with fragility fractures, VBQT2 scores present a viable alternative.© 2024. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature.

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