ORIGINAL ARTICLE Morphometric semi-quantitative assessment of vertebral fractures in postmenopausal black women in Central Africa Joseph Médard Kabeya Kabenkama 1 & Lydie Banza 1 & Jean Mukaya Tshibola 1 & Jean–Marie Mbuyi Muamba 2 & Rahma Rashid Tozin 3 & Michel Lelo Tshikwela 1 Received: 10 November 2017 /Accepted: 1 February 2018 # International Osteoporosis Foundation and National Osteoporosis Foundation 2018 Abstract Summary This prospective and multi-centric study assessed the lacking of pattern in fractured patients and features of vertebral fractures in postmenopausal black women living in central Africa. Introduction Patients with osteoporosis commonly collapsed their vertebral body. This has been widely studied in Caucasians, Asians, and Americans and studies in black African are lacking. Our study was designed to establish a pattern of patients with fractures and determine the features of vertebral fractures in postmenopausal black women living in Central Africa. Methods A prospective and multi-centric study was conducted from June 2011 to June 2016, to assess the thoraco-lumbar- computed tomographic images of women. The menopausal statuses and anthropometric parameters (age, height, and weight) were collected. The body mass index and the Asset Poverty Index were evaluated. The reviews included a morphometric analysis of each vertebra that was rated according to the visual semi-quantitative system proposed by Genant et al. Results Four hundred thirty women aged 47–87 years old were included in this study. The mean age was 57 years old, and the mean menopause duration was 11.45 ± 6.6 years with extremes ranging from 2 to 37 years. The body mass indices were rated as overweight and obese in 80.8% of subjects and 54, 3% had high-API indices. Among the 4730 vertebrae analyzed, 529 (11.12%) were fractured, with 68.7% exhibited a cup-shaped deformation (biconcave), 19.8% had a wedge-shaped deformation, and 11.4% exhibited a cake (crush) deformation. Of the vertebras, 88.8% were grade 0, 5.5% grade 1, 5% grade 2, and 0.57% were grade 3. Of the women, 68.8% had one vertebra fractured and 31.2% had more than one fractured vertebrae. Conclusion This study seemed to determine the pattern and features of vertebral fractures in black African women which may be useful for comparisons with the pattern of worldwide populations. Keywords Osteoporosis . Vertebral fractures . Computed tomography . Volume rendering . Morphometric assessment . Black Africans Introduction Osteoporosis (types I and II) is characterized by reduced bone mass and micro-architectural damage to bone tissue [1–3]. The key factor is the hormonal privation of menopause, and patients commonly fracture their vertebral bodies in a manner that may be a localized or diffuse reduction of the vertebral body height and can occur without any violent trauma. The vertebral abnormalities are often asymptomatic, undetected by clinicians and underdiagnosed by radiologists [2–8], but they are also associated with a decreased in quality of life. Detection of vertebral abnormalities is improved with sag- ittal reconstructions in computed tomography (CT) scan that are occasionally used for other purposes as well as opportu- nistically used for osteoporosis assessment [7–11]. * Michel Lelo Tshikwela michel.lelo@unikin.ac.cd 1 Department of Radiology, Kinshasa University School of Medicine and Hospital, Route Kimwenza, Lemba, Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of the Congo 2 Department of Internal Medicine, Rheumatology, Kinshasa University School of Medicine and Hospital, Route Kimwenza, Lemba, Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of the Congo 3 Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Kinshasa University School of Medicine and Hospital, Route Kimwenza, Lemba, Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of the Congo Archives of Osteoporosis (2018) 13:13 https://doi.org/10.1007/s11657-018-0431-y