Assessment of the sagittal view alone at routine abdominal CT for both vertebral fractures and trabecular bone mineral density provides a rapid and effective opportunistic screen for detecting individuals at increased risk for fragility fractures, according to a study of 571 adults aged ≥ 60 years who underwent routine contrast-enhanced CT scans. Researchers found:

• Mean absolute differences in L1 trabecular attenuation between transverse and sagittal reconstructions was 6.7 HU.

• Transverse and sagittal HU measurements agreed in 94.5% of cases at the 110-HU cutoff.

• 42.3% of patients had likely osteoporosis by CT criteria, of which only 19.8% had previous bone density screening.

Citation: Lee SJ, Binkley N, Lubner MG, Bruce RJ, Ziemlewicz TJ, Pickhardt PJ. Opportunistic screening for osteoporosis using the sagittal reconstruction from routine abdominal CT for combined assessment of vertebral fractures and density. [Published online ahead of print September 29, 2015]. Osteoporos Int. doi: 10.1007/s00198-015-3318-4.