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. 2022 Mar 21;19(6):3721.
doi: 10.3390/ijerph19063721.

Distribution Patterns of Degeneration of the Lumbar Spine in a Cohort of 200 Patients with an Indication for Lumbar MRI

Philipp Näther  1 , Jan Felix Kersten  2 , Ingmar Kaden  1 , Kemal Irga  1 , Albert Nienhaus  2   3
Affiliations

Distribution Patterns of Degeneration of the Lumbar Spine in a Cohort of 200 Patients with an Indication for Lumbar MRI

Philipp Näther et al. Int J Environ Res Public Health. .

Abstract

Lower back pain is one of the most common causes of a reduced quality of life. Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) is the best suited imaging technique to detect causes of that pain. We retrospectively evaluated the MRIs of the lumbar spine for 200 patients in order to describe the distribution of signs of degeneration with regard to age, sex, and position of the disc affected. The number of spinal segments affected by degeneration increased with age, as did the number of signs of degeneration per segment. In patients aged between 21 and 30, 38.8% of discs were affected, while for patients aged between 51 and 60, 91.6% of discs were affected. There was no statistically significant gender difference. The lower two segments were most commonly affected by degeneration. The most common were structural changes to the discs, which affected 88.4% of patients over 50. Spondylosis was the most common bone-related change, found in 60.4% of patients over the age of 50. A reduction in disc height increases the likelihood of structural changes to the disc and bone-related changes. When investigating risk factors for developing disc-related diseases, the complex disc degeneration patterns described here should be taken into account.

Keywords: age-related changes in lumbar spine; low back pain; lumbar disc degeneration; magnetic resonance imaging (MRI); osteochondrosis; spondylosis.

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Conflict of interest statement

The research work of CVcare at the University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf (UKE) is primarily funded by the BGW. The BGW had no role in the design of the study; in the collection, analyses, or interpretation of data; in the writing of the manuscript, or in the decision to publish the results. All other authors (P.N. and I.K.) declare no conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Typical sagittal T2 sequence of a lumbar MRI with signal-attenuated and reduced-height intervertebral discs, evidence of multisegmental disc bulging and degenerative spinal stenosis in segment L4/L5. Additionally, typical vertebral haemangioma at L4.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Percentage of degenerated disc segments per age group with relevant 95% confidence intervals.
Figure 3
Figure 3
Disc height in mm per segment and age cohort.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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