Occupational loading may not affect the association between vertebral trabecular bone and intervertebral disc narrowing

摘要

We thank Professors Adams and Dolan for their interest in our current work [1]. Using micro-CT, our study revealed that severe disc narrowing was associated with better trabecular bone in the anterior region of the vertebral body. This is in contrast to a previous finding that disc narrowing was associated with relatively inferior trabecular bone quality in the anterior vertebra, which was believed to result from a modified loading distribution pattern in the spinal segment and consequent stress-shielding in the anterior region [2]. Adams and Dolan explained in their letter that the contrast was mainly due to differences in cadaveric materials and spinal levels investigated in the two studies.