Other clinical outcomes of vertebral deformity such as height loss or kyphosis were not available for analysis in our study. Because this study only included women, our findings may not be generalizable to men. In conclusion, our results are consistent with other population-based studies that reported vertebral deformities are most common in midthoracic and upper lumbar vertebrae and suggest

that the number and type of vertebral deformities and osteoarthritis PLX4032 are important sources of back pain among women in Japan. Although these findings are subject to limitations that are typical of cross-sectional studies, they are broadly consistent with results from other studies of Japanese and Caucasians that used prospective and cross-sectional designs. Acknowledgments The study was supported, in part, by the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science. Conflicts Fulvestrant datasheet of interest Philip Ross was formerly employed at Merck & Company, Inc. and owns stock in Merck and other pharmaceutical companies. The other authors have no conflicts of interest to declare. Open Access This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits any use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided

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