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. 2025 Dec;47(1):2534844.
doi: 10.1080/0886022X.2025.2534844. Epub 2025 Jul 23.

Relationship of lumbar vertebral volumetric bone mineral density with trunk muscle density assessed by quantitative computed tomography in maintenance hemodialysis patients

Lijiao Yang  1 , Liping Zhang  1 , Xiaoguang Cheng  2 , Ling Wang  2 , Chao Wang  3 , Dongliang Zhang  1
Affiliations

Relationship of lumbar vertebral volumetric bone mineral density with trunk muscle density assessed by quantitative computed tomography in maintenance hemodialysis patients

Lijiao Yang et al. Ren Fail. 2025 Dec.

Abstract

Background: Sarcopenia due to abnormal muscle metabolism and osteoporosis due to abnormal bone metabolism are common complications in maintenance hemodialysis (MHD) patients. The aim of this study was to investigate the association between volumetric bone mineral density (vBMD) and trunk muscle density, as assessed by quantitative computed tomography (QCT) in MHD patients.

Methods: A total of 108 patients were included. Patients were categorized into a nonosteopenia (n = 38) and an osteopenia group (n = 70) on the basis of vBMD. Multivariate logistic regression was employed to adjust for potential confounding factors.

Results: Patients in the osteopenia group were older (65.03 ± 10.05 vs. 53.16 ± 13.52 years, p < 0.001). Trunk muscle density (24.97 ± 7.14 vs. 32.04 ± 5.79, p < 0.001) were lower in the osteopenia group than in the nonosteopenia group. Multiple linear regression revealed a positive correlation between trunk muscle density and lumbar vBMD (B = 2.362; 95% CI (1.325-3.399), p < 0.001). Logistic regression analysis revealed that patients with greater trunk muscle density had a lower risk of osteopenia (odds ratio [OR] = 0.842; 95% CI (0.713-0.995), p = 0.043). The predictive value of trunk muscle density for osteopenia in MHD patients was 0.779 (p < 0.001).

Conclusions: We found that the greater the trunk muscle density is, the greater is the vBMD of the lumbar spine in MHD patients. This may indicate that trunk muscle density serves as a protective factor against osteopenia in this population.

Keywords: Bone mineral density; maintenance hemodialysis; osteopenia; quantitative computed tomography; trunk muscle density.

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Conflict of interest statement

None.

Figures

Figure 1:
Figure 1:
Flow diagram of patients throughout the study.
Figure 2:
Figure 2:
Measurement of muscle density.
Figure 3:
Figure 3:
Scatterplots: (A) Scatterplot of vBMD and trunk muscle density. (B) Scatterplot of age and vBMD. (C) Scatterplot of age and trunk muscle density.
Figure 4:
Figure 4:
Predictive value of trunk muscle density for osteopenia in MHD patients.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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