Digital tomosynthesis (DTS) is a clinically available modality that allows imaging of a patient's spine in supine and standing positions. The purpose of this study was to establish the extent to which vertebral displacement and stiffness derived from DTS-based digital volume correlation (DTS-DVC) are correlated with those from a reference method, i.e., microcomputed tomography-based DVC (μCT-DVC). T11 vertebral bodies from 11 cadaveric donors were DTS imaged twice in a nonloaded state and once under a fixed load level approximating upper body weight. The same vertebrae were µCT imaged in nonloaded and loaded states (40 μm voxel size). Vertebral displacements were calculated at each voxel using DVC with pairs of nonloaded and loaded images, from which endplate-to-endplate axial displacement (D_DVC) and vertebral stiffness (S_DVC) were calculated. Both D_DVC and S_DVC demonstrated strong positive correlations between DTS-DVC and μCT-DVC, with correlations being stronger when vertebral displacement was calculated using the median (R²=0.80; p<0.0002 and R²=0.93; p<0.0001, respectively) rather than average displacement (R²=0.63; p<0.004 and R²=0.69; p<0.002, respectively). In conclusion, the demonstrated relationship of DTS-DVC with the μCT standard supports further development of a biomechanics-based clinical assessment of vertebral bone quality using the DTS-DVC technique.

数字断层合成 (DTS) 是一种临床可用的方式，可以对患者仰卧和站立姿势的脊柱进行成像。本研究的目的是确定从基于 DTS 的数字体积相关性 (DTS-DVC) 得出的椎体位移和刚度与来自参考方法，即基于微计算机断层扫描的 DVC (μCT-DVC) 的相关性的程度. 来自 11 名尸体供体的 T11 椎体在无负荷状态下进行了两次 DTS 成像，一次在接近上半身重量的固定负荷水平下进行了 DTS 成像。相同的椎骨在未加载和加载状态（40 μm 体素大小）下进行 μCT 成像。使用 DVC 和成对的未加载和加载图像计算每个体素处的椎体位移，从中得出终板到终板的轴向位移 (D _DVC) 和脊椎刚度 (S _DVC ) 被计算出来。D _DVC和 S _DVC在 DTS-DVC 和 μCT-DVC 之间都表现出很强的正相关性，当使用中位数计算椎体位移时，相关性更强（R ² =0.80；p <0.0002 和 R ² =0.93；p <0.0001，分别）而不是平均位移（R ² =0.63；p <0.004 和 R ² =0.69；p<0.002，分别）。总之，DTS-DVC 与 μCT 标准之间已证明的关系支持使用 DTS-DVC 技术进一步开发基于生物力学的椎骨质量临床评估。