To explore the diagnostic value of serum procalcitonin (PCT) level combined with Quantitative Computed Tomography (QCT) in elderly women with painful osteoporosis and its correlation with disease severity.

This study is a prospective study. From Jan. 2019 to Apr. 2020, 596 elderly women who underwent physical examination in our hospital were selected as the research subjects. All of them underwent dual-energy X-ray, PCT examination, and QCT examination serum. The diagnostic value of PCT and QCT in elderly women with painful osteoporosis was analyzed; Pearson correlation was used to analyze the correlation between the bone mineral density of lumbar vertebral 1, 2 vertebra, PCT and the severity of painful osteoporosis.

Among 596 elderly women, painful osteoporosis patients accounted for 50.84% (303/596) , bone mass reduction accounted for 21.98% (131/596) , and normal bone mass accounted for 27.18% (162/596) . Compared with the results of the diagnosis of painful osteoporosis by DAX, the diagnostic coincidence rates of PCT, QCT, QCT+PCT were 81.88% (488/596) , 93.62% (558/596) , and 97.31% (580/596) . QCT examination, QCT+PCT diagnosis coincidence rate is higher than PCT examination (χ²=43.650, 83.187, P<0.05) ; QCT+PCT diagnosis coincidence rate is higher than QCT examination (χ²=9.388, P=0.002) . The sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value, and negative predictive value of QCT+PCT in the diagnosis of abnormal bone mass are higher than those of PCT (P<0.05) ; the specificity and negative predictive value of QCT+PCT in diagnosing abnormal bone mass are higher than QCT Check (P<0.05) . The bone density detected by QCT in the osteopenia group and the painful osteoporosis group was lower than that in the normal bone mass group, and the serum PCT level was higher than that in the normal bone mass group, the difference was statistically significant (P<0.05) ; the painful osteoporosis group was in QCT detection of bone. The density was lower than that of the osteopenia group, and the serum PCT level was higher than that of the osteopenia group, the difference was statistically significant (P<0.05) . The severity of painful osteoporosis was negatively correlated with bone mineral density detected by QCT (r=-0.54, P<0.05) , and positively correlated with serum PCT (r=0.59, P<0.05) .

QCT vertebral bone mineral density determination combined with serum PCT detection has high accuracy, sensitivity, and specificity in the diagnosis of painful osteoporosis, and is closely related to the severity of painful osteoporosis, and can be used for clinical evaluation of the condition of painful osteoporosis patients.

Painful osteoporosis; Quantitative CT; Procalcitonin; Bone mineral density