Compression fracture diagnosis in lumbar: a clinical CAD system

Purpose Lower back pain affects 80–90 % of all people at some point during their life time, and it is considered as the second most neurological ailment after headache. It is caused by defects in the discs, vertebrae, or the soft tissues. Radiologists perform diagnosis mainly from X-ray radiographs, MRI, or CT depending on the target organ. Vertebra fracture is usually diagnosed from X-ray radiographs or CT depending on the available technology. In this paper, we propose a fully automated Computer-Aided Diagnosis System (CAD) for the diagnosis of vertebra wedge compression fracture from CT images that integrates within the clinical routine.