Clinical Profiles of Osteoporotic Vertebral Compression Fractures: A Secondary Data Analysis of 358 Patients from a Prospective Clinical Study

Abstract

Background: For back pain patients with spine dysfunction, clinical profiles are crucial for clinicians to establish the diagnostic and therapeutic decision-making. The objectives of this study were (1) to outline the incident clinical findings and familiarize physicians with the clinical profiles of osteoporotic vertebral fractures (OVFs) and (2) to characterize patients with radiating pain (RP), spinal palpation tenderness (SPT), or axial spinal percussion pain (ASPP). Methods: This is a secondary data analysis of 358 patients from a prospective clinical study (November 1, 2016, to September 30, 2018) with particular focus on the incident RP, SPT, and ASPP. Predictive analyses for the incident RP, SPT and ASPP were done along the clinical profiles in 358 patients (284 females).Results: The cohort patients who complained of spinal movement-related pain performed a limited amplitude of movements with the purpose of avoiding the onset of back pain in daily life. Of the patients who had OVFs, 76 (21.2%) patients had RP, 197 (55.0%) patients had SPT, and 83 (23.2%) patients had ASPP. On multiple regression analysis, only patients with VFs located in T1–T9 or those who had a -2.5 ≤ T-score < -3.5 showed significantly higher incidences of RP, SPT, and ASPP (p < 0.05).Conclusion: Dynamic back pain and backache avoidance behavior are the typical clinical presentations of patients with OVFs. RP, SPT, and ASPP are nondeterministic incidents, indicating that avoidance is necessary with respect to cognitive bias in clinical practice.