Hounsfield Units on Lumbar Computed Tomography for Predicting Regional Bone Mineral Density

OBJECTIVE: Bone mineral density (BMD) is a very important factor in spinal fusion surgery using instrumentation. Our aim was to investigate the utility of Hounsfield units (HU) obtained from preoperative lumbar computed tomography (CT) to predict osteoporosis coupling with data of quantitative computed tomography (QCT) and dual X-ray absorptiometry (DEXA). METHODS: We reviewed 180 patients that underwent both QCT and lumbar CT for spine surgery. HU was retrospectively calculated on the lumbar CT of 503 lumbar vertebrae from L1 to L3. Femur DEXA was performed in all patients and spine DEXA was tested in 120 patients (331 vertebrae). BMD was grouped as osteoporosis (QCT<80mg/cm(3), DEXA T score≤-2.5) and non-osteoporosis (QCT≥80mg/cm(3), DEXA T score>-2.5) for comparison of HU value. RESULTS: HU value and BMD showed significant correlations. The optima cut-off value based on QCT was higher than that of DEXA scans which had the best correlation for predicting osteoporosis. ROC curve analysis demonstrated that HU value with QCT of 146 has a sensitivity of 94.3% and a specificity of 87.5% for osteoporosis. CONCLUSIONS: Significant correlation was found between HU measurement and BMD value. These findings provide evidence that HU measurement can be established as a means for predicting osteoporosis before spine fusion surgery with reduced radiation hazard.