Age-related changes in dorsal and ventral vertebral body height of the T12 vertebra in females: A magnetic resonance imaging study

We compared dorsal and ventral T12 vertebra (T12V) body height at different ages in females. We wanted to determine whether an association exists between dorsal/ventral body height and aging. To our knowledge, there are no studies in which the investigation of this comparison has been performed. In total, 409 females were examined with lumbo-thoracic spine magnetic resonance imaging (LTMRI). Sagittal T2-weighted turbo spin echo MRI images were acquired from all subjects. Using a picture archiving system, the dorsal and ventral vertebral body heights of the T12V on LTMRI were measured in all subjects. The patients’ ages ranged from 20 to 90 years. The 409 individuals were categorized by age into the following groups: ages 20 to 39 years (Group 1), ages 40 to 49 years (Group 2), ages 50 to 59 years (Group 3), ages 60 to 69 years (Group 4), ages 70 to 79 years (Group 5), and ages > 80 years (Group 6). Significant differences were found between T12V ventral and dorsal heights and the different age groups (all P  < .0001). The percent difference in ventral T12V body height between Group 1 and Group 6 was 26.10%, and the percent difference in the dorsal T12V body height was 21.90%. The mean body height of the ventral T12V was 20.26 ± 2.24 mm. The average body height of the dorsal T12V was 22.25 ± 2.15 mm. We found 4 important new findings: the mean height of the ventral T12V body was significantly lower than that of the mean height of the dorsal T12V body, there was an aging-related decrease in ventral T12V body height, there was an aging-related decrease in dorsal T12V body height, and the rate of decrease in ventral body height was higher than that in the dorsal body.