ISSLS Prize in Bioengineering Science 2023: Age- and sex-related differences in lumbar intervertebral disc degeneration between patients with chronic low back pain and asymptomatic controls.

ABSTRACT:

Purpose

Clinical management of disc degeneration in patients with chronic low back pain (cLBP) is hampered by the challenge of distinguishing pathologic changes relating to pain from physiologic changes related to aging. The goal of this study was to use imaging biomarkers of disc biochemical composition to distinguish degenerative changes associated with cLBP from normal aging.

Methods

T1ρ MRI data were acquired from 133 prospectively enrolled subjects for this observational study (80 cLBP, 53 controls; mean ± SD age = 43.9 ± 13.4 years; 61 females, 72 males). The mean T1ρ relaxation time in the nucleus pulposus (NP-T1ρ; n = 650 discs) was used as a quantitative biomarker of disc biochemical composition. Linear regression was used to assess associations between NP-T1ρ and a

SUBMITTER: Bonnheim NB 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC10205694 | biostudies-literature | 2023 May

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature