How Does Obesity Influence the Risk of Vertebral Fracture? Findings From the UK Biobank Participants.

Obesity and osteoporotic-related fractures are two common public health problems, although it is unclear how obesity affects the risk of vertebral fractures. The purpose of this study was to examine the association between different measures of obesity and the risk of vertebral fracture, and to establish the various clinical factors that can predict such risk. We analyzed data obtained from 502,543 participants in the UK Biobank (229,138 men and 273,405 women), aged 40 to 69 years.

Automatic measurement of intervertebral movements using radiographic images.

Measurement of intervertebral movements is essential in the assessment and diagnosis of patient's instability. However, diagnosis of the underlying causes remains problematic despite of extensive study. Reasons for this arise from the variability of detecting vertebral body landmarks, labor and time-consuming of manual point placement, incompletely description of the vertebral body shape and also from the structural complexity of the spine.