Chen-Xu Zhao; Cong Liu; Xin-Ting Liu; Yan-Yan Chi; Sheng-Bo Yu; Nan Zheng; Jian-Fei Zhang; Ying-Yang Xu; Hong Jin Sui & Qiang Xu

A Study on Relationship between Single-Slice Hounsfield Unit(HU) value of the Chinese proximal humerus and Bone Mineral Density(BMD) Using Routine Chest CT and Dual-energy X-ray Absorptiometry(DEXA) was performed. Data were collected from 240 individuals who underwent DEXA and routine chest CT scans (including full images of the proximal humerus) on the same day at 967 Hospitals between January 2019 and December 2021. The method of measuring single-slice HU values of the proximal humerus on routine chest CT scans exhibited high reliability and repeatability (intraclass correlation coefficient > 0.961, P < 0.001). A strong positive correlation was observed between single-slice HU values of the proximal humerus and DEXA results, with the 20-mm HU value demonstrating the highest correlation. Across different BMI groups, the Area Under Curve (AUC) for the 20-mm HU value was consistently the largest (AUC=0.701– 0.813, P< 0.05). Therefore, the 20-mm HU value can be considered a reliable reference for the opportunistic screening of low BMD, with reference values of -4HU for underweight individuals, -13HU for normal weight individuals, -7HU for overweight individuals, and -16HU for obese individuals. Values below these thresholds indicate a risk of low BMD. This study enriches the Chinese BMD data and offers a swift and effective approach for opportunistically screening low BMD.

KEY WORDS: Proximal humerus; Hounsfield units; Bone mineral density; Chinese.

ZHAO, C. X.; LIU, C.; LIU, X. T.; CHI, Y. Y.; YU, S. B.; ZHENG, N.; ZHANG, J. F.; XU, Y. Y.; SUI, H. J. & XU, Q. Single-slice Hounsfield Unit (HU) value of the Chinese proximal humerus on routine chest CT: A study on opportunistically screening for low bone density. Int. J. Morphol., 42(4):1062-1069, 2024.