Evaluation of vertebral bone mineral density in scoliosis by using quantitative computed tomography

Purpose
Scoliosis is described as a lateral curvature of the spine. We aimed to evaluate bone mineral density (BMD) in patients with scoliosis by using quantitative computed tomography (QCT) and compare the BMD of idiopathic and congenital scoliosis patients.

Material and methods
Forty-three patients aged 1 to 40 years with idiopathic, congenital, or neuromuscular scoliosis and 41 matched controls of the same sex and approximate age were included in the study. Measurements of BMD were performed by QCT analysis for each vertebral body from T12 to L5, and mean BMD was calculated for each case.

Results
Twenty-two of the patients with scoliosis were idiopathic, 15 were congenital, four were neuromuscular, and two were neurofibromatosis. The mean BMD values of patients with scoliosis were significantly lower compared with the control group (106.8 ± 33.4 mg/cm³ vs. 124.9 ± 29.1 mg/cm³, p = 0.009). No significant difference in BMD values was found between idiopathic and congenital scoliosis patients (p > 0.05).

Conclusions
This study illustrated that the vertebral body BMD values of the patients with scoliosis were significantly lower than those seen in the control group.