Figure 1:

Patient flowchart for the presence of early diffuse idiopathic skeletal hyperostosis (DISH) in cohort I. Patients were given a diagnosis of DISH on both the first and the last noncontrast chest CT studies according to the criteria by Resnick and Niwayama (7) (new bony bridges over at least four adjacent vertebral bodies, without severe loss of intervertebral disk height and no ankylosis of the apophyseal joints). Patients without DISH at the first CT study but with DISH at the last CT study (n = 55) were regarded as having had early DISH at the first CT study. In 90 patients, DISH was present in both the first and the last CT study.