Evaluation of the 10 Years’ Association Between DXA Screening and Mortality in Patients Who Received Vertebroplasty in the Taiwan Population

BACKGROUND: Osteoporotic fractures are a significant cause of morbidity and mortality affecting population worldwide. All guidelines recommended vertebral fracture assessment by dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry (DXA). This study aimed at evaluation of any associated benefits of screening with DXA in patients who had received vertebroplasty in Taiwan. METHODS: Data were obtained from the National Health Insurance Research Database (NHIRD) in Taiwan. We retrospectively compared the data of patients, who were admitted for vertebroplasty, whether they received DXA screening or not. The outcomes of interest were recurrence of spinal fracture and mortality during a follow-up period of 10 years. RESULTS: From this Taiwan national database, the screening rate of osteoporosis in patient who received vertebroplasty was 11.7%. The mean age in the non-DXA screened cohort (n=32,986) was 74.03±12.21 years (71.98% female). In the DXA screened cohort (n=4361), the mean age was 76.43±9.19 years (79.91% female). During the 10-year follow-up period, after matching, non-DXA patients had significantly higher mortality rates than their DXA counterparts, which were 42.37% and 37.73% (p-value < 0.0001), respectively. The re-fracture rates between non-DXA and DXA patients were not significantly different at 17.26% and 16.89% (p-value = 0.1766), respectively. CONCLUSION: The rate of DXA screening before patients receiving vertebroplasty was extremely low, at 11.7%. Our results showed that DXA screening before vertebroplasty in spinal fractures patients had lower mortality. From this national retrospective cohort study, routine screening of osteoporosis in spinal fracture patients can lead to reduction in mortality.