Shape-based Assessment of Vertebral Fracture Risk in Postmenopausal Women Using Discriminative Shape Alignment

The shape-based classifier provided meaningful information for the prediction of vertebral fractures. The approach was tested on case and control groups matched for osteoporosis risk factors. Therefore, the method can be considered an additional biomarker, which combined with traditional risk factors can improve population selection (eg, in clinical trials), identifying patients with high fracture risk.