Support vector machines are superior to principal components analysis for selecting the optimal bones' CT attenuations for opportunistic screening for osteoporosis using CT scans of the foot or ankle.

Objectives: To use the computed tomography (CT) attenuation of the foot and ankle bones for opportunistic screening for osteoporosis.

Methods: Retrospective study of 163 consecutive patients from a tertiary care academic center who underwent CT scans of the foot or ankle and dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry (DXA) within 1 year of each other. Volumetric segmentation of each bone of the foot and ankle was done in 3D Slicer to obtain the mean CT attenuation. Pearson's correlations were used to correlate the CT attenuations with each other and with DXA measurements. Support vector machines (SVM) with various kernels and principal components analysis (PCA) were used to predict osteoporosis and osteopenia/osteoporosis in training/validation and test datasets.

Results: CT attenuation measurements at the talus, calcaneus, navicular, cuboid, and cuneiforms were correlated with each other and positively correlated with BMD T-scores at the L1-4 lumbar spine, hip, and femoral neck; however, there was no significant correlation with the L1-4 trabecular bone scores. A CT attenuation threshold of 143.2 Hounsfield units (HU) of the calcaneus was best for detection of osteoporosis in the training/validation dataset. SVMs with radial basis function (RBF) kernels were significantly better than the PCA model and the calcaneus for predicting osteoporosis in the test dataset.

Conclusions: Opportunistic screening for osteoporosis is possible using the CT attenuation of the foot and ankle bones. SVMs with RBF using all bones is more accurate than the CT attenuation of the calcaneus.