Prevalence of diffuse idiopathic skeletal hyperostosis (DISH) assessed with whole-spine computed tomography in 1479 subjects

BACKGROUND: Computed tomography (CT) analyses have reported that the prevalence of diffuse idiopathic skeletal hyperostosis (DISH) in Japan is 8.7–27.1%. However, these data were obtained using chest-abdominal CT, and no evaluations of sagittal, coronal, and axial images using whole-spine CT have been reported. The aim of this study was to investigate the prevalence and characteristic of DISH by whole spinal CT. METHODS: Participants were patients who had experienced trauma who had undergone whole-spine CT scanning based on the initial clinical practice guidelines for trauma in our institute from April 2015 to February 2018. The subjects were > 20 years old and 1479 were included in the analysis. The presence and distribution of DISH and clinical parameters such as age and sex were reviewed retrospectively according to the location of DISH. RESULTS: The overall prevalence of DISH was 19.5% (n = 289). Subjects with DISH were older than those without. DISH was located in the thoracic spine in 65.1% and thoracolumbar spine in 24.2% of patients. More than 80% of ligamentous ossifications associated with DISH occurred at T8 (n = 255, 88%), T9 (n = 262, 91%), and T10 (n = 247, 85%). Most of the ossification occurred to the right anterior of the vertebral body, and there were few ossifications in the areas in contact with the artery and vein. CONCLUSIONS: The prevalence of DISH based on whole-spine CT was 19.5%. Ossification was noted more often at T8, T9, and T10, and to the right anterior of the vertebral body. It is for the first time report that we have studied the location of ossification in detail using the axial images of whole spine CT. We hope this study will enhance the understanding of the characteristics of DISH. ELECTRONIC SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIAL: The online version of this article (10.1186/s12891-018-2108-5) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.