Associations between vertebral bone marrow fat and sagittal spine alignment as assessed by chemical shift-encoding-based water–fat MRI

Abstract

Background The relationship between sagittal spine alignment and vertebral bone marrow fat is unknown. We aimed to assess the relationship between vertebral bone marrow fat and sagittal spine alignment using chemical shift-encoding-based water–fat magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). Methods A total of 181 asymptomatic volunteers were recruited for whole spine X-ray and lumbar MRI. Spine typing was performed according to the Roussouly classification and measurement of vertebral fat fraction based on the chemical shift-encoding-based water–fat MRI. One-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) was used to analyze the differences in vertebral fat fraction between spine types. The post hoc least significant difference (LSD) test was utilized for subgroup comparison after ANOVA. Results Overall, the vertebral fat fraction increased from L1 to L5 and was the same for each spine type. The vertebral fat fraction was the highest in type 1 and lowest in type 4 at all levels. ANOVA revealed statistically significant differences in fat fraction among different spine types at L4 and L5 (P < .05). The post hoc LSD test showed that the fat fraction of L4 was significantly different (P < .05) between type 1 and type 4 as well as between type 2 and type 4. The fat fraction of L5 was significantly different between type 1 and type 3, between type 1 and type 4, and between type 2 and type 4 (P < .05). Conclusion Our study found that vertebral bone marrow fat is associated with sagittal spine alignment, which may serve as a new additional explanation for the association of sagittal alignment with spinal degeneration.