Heather Ting Ma1,2, James F. Griffith2,
Alvin F. W. Li2, David K. Yeung2, Jason Leung2,
Yi-Xiang Wang2, Ping-Chung Leung2
1Harbin Institute of
Technology Shenzhen Graduate School, Shenzhen, Guangdong, China, People's
Republic of; 2The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong,
China, People's Republic of
T1-signal intensity of the marrow cavity is dependent on the type of marrow and the trabecular bone present. Marrow fat increases as bone becomes more osteoporotic. This study investigates whether a simple normalized T1-value of the vertebral body can predict a patient is osteoporotic (according to bone mineral density assessment by dual x-ray absorptiometry). The signal intensity of L3 was normalized by relating it to the signal intensity of prevertebral soft tissue. According to receiver operating characteristics, ratio values of 0.95 and 1.016 respectively gave a successful rate of 84% and 66% for predicting males and females with osteoporosis.