Prevalence of Osteopenia and Osteoporosis in Adult Scoliotic Women Assessed with Dual-Energy X-Ray Absorptiometry (DXA)

DXA is a gold-standard method for assessing bone mineral density (BMD) to diagnose osteopenia and osteoporosis. Osteoporosis and degenerative lumbar scoliosis are well-known diseases in adults, which are most often coexistent. This study aimed to assess the prevalence of osteopenia and osteoporosis in 1019 women aged ≥40 years divided into different groups according to the Cobb angle measured from DXA scan images with DICOM software. We found that the incidence of osteoporosis of the lumbar spine and total hip, as well as the incidence of osteopenia of the total hip, increased in the groups according to the Cobb angle. The group with a Cobb angle >10^◦ showed the highest prevalence of osteoporosis. According to the Cobb angle, the incidence of osteopenia of the lumbar spine remained similar in the different groups. The results of the current study show that scoliosis has an essential impact on the interpretation of DXA scans. The BMD’s false elevation, respectively, of the T-score of some vertebrae, could lead to an incorrect final diagnosis. In this case, additional assessment of the hip BMD could be useful for a more accurate interpretation of the results based on the lumbar spine BMD.