Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Bazargani, Roozbeh, Basar, Saqib Abdullah, Daly-Grafstein, Daniel, Pompa, Rodrigo Solis, Lee, Soojin, Garg, Saurabh, Ma, Yuntong, Carrino, John A., Khallaghi, Siavash, Hashemi, Sam
Format: Preprint
Published: 2025
Subjects:
Online Access:https://arxiv.org/abs/2511.17485
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
_version_ 1866915631258927104
author Bazargani, Roozbeh
Basar, Saqib Abdullah
Daly-Grafstein, Daniel
Pompa, Rodrigo Solis
Lee, Soojin
Garg, Saurabh
Ma, Yuntong
Carrino, John A.
Khallaghi, Siavash
Hashemi, Sam
author_facet Bazargani, Roozbeh
Basar, Saqib Abdullah
Daly-Grafstein, Daniel
Pompa, Rodrigo Solis
Lee, Soojin
Garg, Saurabh
Ma, Yuntong
Carrino, John A.
Khallaghi, Siavash
Hashemi, Sam
contents The human spine is a complex structure composed of 33 vertebrae. It holds the body and is important for leading a healthy life. The spine is vulnerable to age-related degenerations that can be identified through magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). In this paper we propose a novel computer-vison-based deep learning method to estimate spine age using images from over 18,000 MRI series. Data are restricted to subjects with only age-related spine degeneration. Eligibility criteria are created by identifying common age-based clusters of degenerative spine conditions using uniform manifold approximation and projection (UMAP) and hierarchical density-based spatial clustering of applications with noise (HDBSCAN). Model selection is determined using a detailed ablation study on data size, loss, and the effect of different spine regions. We evaluate the clinical utility of our model by calculating the difference between actual spine age and model-predicted age, the spine age gap (SAG), and examining the association between these differences and spine degenerative conditions and lifestyle factors. We find that SAG is associated with conditions including disc bulges, disc osteophytes, spinal stenosis, and fractures, as well as lifestyle factors like smoking and physically demanding work, and thus may be a useful biomarker for measuring overall spine health.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2511_17485
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle An Artificial Intelligence Framework for Measuring Human Spine Aging Using MRI
Bazargani, Roozbeh
Basar, Saqib Abdullah
Daly-Grafstein, Daniel
Pompa, Rodrigo Solis
Lee, Soojin
Garg, Saurabh
Ma, Yuntong
Carrino, John A.
Khallaghi, Siavash
Hashemi, Sam
Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition
The human spine is a complex structure composed of 33 vertebrae. It holds the body and is important for leading a healthy life. The spine is vulnerable to age-related degenerations that can be identified through magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). In this paper we propose a novel computer-vison-based deep learning method to estimate spine age using images from over 18,000 MRI series. Data are restricted to subjects with only age-related spine degeneration. Eligibility criteria are created by identifying common age-based clusters of degenerative spine conditions using uniform manifold approximation and projection (UMAP) and hierarchical density-based spatial clustering of applications with noise (HDBSCAN). Model selection is determined using a detailed ablation study on data size, loss, and the effect of different spine regions. We evaluate the clinical utility of our model by calculating the difference between actual spine age and model-predicted age, the spine age gap (SAG), and examining the association between these differences and spine degenerative conditions and lifestyle factors. We find that SAG is associated with conditions including disc bulges, disc osteophytes, spinal stenosis, and fractures, as well as lifestyle factors like smoking and physically demanding work, and thus may be a useful biomarker for measuring overall spine health.
title An Artificial Intelligence Framework for Measuring Human Spine Aging Using MRI
topic Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2511.17485