• Toru Doi, Chiaki Horii, Keiichiro Tozawa, Hiroyuki Nakarai, Katsuyuki Sasaki, Yuichi Yoshida, Yusuke Ito, Nozomu Ohtomo, Ryuji Sakamoto, Koji Nakajima, Kosei Nagata, Naoki Okamoto, Hideki Nakamoto, So Kato, Yuki Taniguchi, Yoshitaka Matsubayashi, Sakae Tanaka, and Yasushi Oshima.
• Department of Orthopaedic Surgery, The University of Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan.
• Spine. 2023 Feb 15; 48 (4): E40E45E40-E45.

Study DesignA single-center prospective observational study.ObjectiveThe aim was to clarify the usefulness of assessing advanced glycation end products (AGEs) by noninvasive skin autofluorescence in patients with ossification of the posterior longitudinal ligament (OPLL).Summary Of Background DataAGE accumulation is associated with various systemic disorders, including aging, diabetes mellitus, and obesity. AGEs have also been associated with OPLL, but their assessment by noninvasive skin autofluorescence has not been yet studied in these patients.Materials And MethodsWe enrolled patients with degenerative spinal spondylosis and divided them into non-OPLL and OPLL groups. The OPLL group was further subdivided into cervical OPLL (C-OPLL) and thoracic OPLL (T-OPLL) groups. We compared patients' characteristics, serum laboratory data (i.e. hemoglobin A1c, total cholesterol, creatinine, and estimated glomerular filtration rate), and the skin autofluorescence intensity of AGEs (the AGE score) between the non-OPLL and OPLL groups and among the non-OPLL, C-OPLL, T-OPLL groups. Finally, the association of the AGE score with the presence of C-OPLL or T-OPLL was assessed by multinomial logistic regression.ResultsAmong the 240 eligible patients, 102 were in the non-OPLL group and 138 were in the OPLL group (92 with C-OPLL and 46 with T-OPLL). We observed no significant difference in the AGE score between the non-OPLL and OPLL groups, but when comparing the score among the non-OPLL, C-OPLL, and T-OPLL groups, we found that the T-OPLL group had a significantly higher AGE score. The results of multinomial regression analysis showed that a higher AGE score was significantly associated with T-OPLL (odds ratio: 1.46; 95% CI: 1.01-2.11; P=0.044).ConclusionThe AGE score determined by noninvasive skin autofluorescence could help to screen for OPLL in the thoracic spine.Copyright © 2022 Wolters Kluwer Health, Inc. All rights reserved.

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