Use of MR-based trabecular bone microstructure analysis at the distal radius for osteoporosis diagnostics: a study in post-menopausal women with breast cancer and treated with aromatase inhibitor.

Purpose: Treatment with aromatase inhibitor (AI) is recommended for post-menopausal women with hormone-receptor positive breast cancer. However, AI therapy is known to induce bone loss leading to osteoporosis with an increased risk for fragility fractures. The purpose of this study was to investigate whether changes of magnetic resonance (MR)-based trabecular bone microstructure parameters as advanced imaging biomarker can already be detected in subjects with AI intake but still without evidence for osteoporosis according to dual energy X-ray absorptiometry (DXA)-based bone mineral density (BMD) measurements as current clinical gold standard.