Intervertebral Discs

1.AUTHOR Freemont-A-J et al.
TITLE Nerve ingrowth into diseased intervertebral disc in chronic back pain.
SOURCE Lancet 1997; 350: 178-181.

2.AUTHOR Powell-M-C, Wilson-M, Szypryt-P, Symonds-E-M, Worthington-B-S.
TITLE Prevalence of lumbar disc degeneration observed by magnetic resonance in symptomless women.
INSTITUTIONUniversity Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, Nottingham.
SOURCE Lancet 1986 Dec 13, VOL: 2 (8520), P: 1366-7, ISSN: 0140-6736.
Abstract:302 women aged 16-80 without symptoms of spinal disease had their lumbar intervertebral discs examined by magnetic resonance. The prevalence of or more degenerate discs increased linearly with age but disc degeneration was already present in over one-third of women aged 21-40; these young women may prove to be at special risk of disc prolapse later in life. The prevalence of symptomless disc degeneration must be taken in account when magnetic resonance is used for assessment of spinal symptoms. Author.

3.AUTHOR Boden-S-D, Davis-D-O, Dina-T-S, Patronas-N-J, Wiesel-S-W.
TITLE Abnormal magnetic-resonance scans of the lumbar spine in asymptomatic subjects. A prospective investigation.
INSTITUTIONDepartment of Orthopaedic Surgery, George Washington University Medical Center, Washington, D.C.
SOURCE J-Bone-Joint-Surg (AM) 1990 Mar, VOL: 72 (3), P: 403-8 ISSN: 0021-9355
Abstract:We performed magnetic resonance imaging on sixty-seven individuals who had never had low-back pain, sciatica, or neurogenic claudication. The sc interpreted independently by three neuro-radiologists who had not knowledge about the presence or absence of clinical symptoms in the subjects. A one-third of the subjects were found to have a substantial abnormality those who were less than sixty years old, 20 per cent had a herniated pulposus and one had spinal stenosis. In the group that was sixty years or older, the findings were abnormal on about 57 percent of the scans: cent of the subjects had a herniated nucleus pulposus and 21 per cent spinal stenosis. There was degeneration or bulging of a disc at least lumbar level in 35 per cent of the subjects between twenty and thirty years old and in all but one of the sixty to eighty-year-old subjects these findings in asymptomatic subjects, we concluded that abnormality magnetic resonance images must be strictly correlated with age and an clinical signs and symptoms before operative treatment is contemplated. Author.

4. AUTHORWeisel-S-W,
Tsourmas-N, Feffer-H-L, Citrin-C-M Patronas-N.
TITLEA study of computer-assisted tomography. I. The incidence of positive CAT scans in an symptomatic group of patients.
INSTITUTIONDepartment of Orthopaedic Surgery, George Washington University, Washington, DC.
SOURCESpine 1984 Sep, VOL: 9 (6), P: 549-51, ISSN: 0362-2436.
Abstract:In order to study the type and number of CAT scan abnormalities of the lumbar spine that occur in asymptomatic people, 52 studies from a con population with no history of back trouble were mixed randomly with s scans from patients with surgically proven spinal disease, and all were int by three neuroradiologists in a blinded fashion. Irrespective of age, (26.6%, 51.0%, and 31.3%) were found to be abnormal. Spinal disease w identified in an average of 19.5% (23.8%, 22.7%, and 12.5%) of the under 40-year-olds, and it was a herniated nucleus pulposus in every instance over 40-year-old age group, there was an average of 50% (s9.s%, 81.5%, 48.1%) abnormal findings, with diagnoses of herniated disc, fact degeneration, and stenosis occurring most frequently. Author.

5. AUTHORWalsh-T-R, Weinstein-J-N, Spratt-K-F, Lehmann-T-R, Aprill-C, Sayre-H.
TITLELumbar discography in normal subjects. A controlled, prospective study.
INSTITUTIONDepartment of Orthopaedic Surgery, University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics, Iowa City 52242
SOURCEJ-Bone-Joint-Surg (AM) 1990 Aug, VOL: 72 (7), P: 1081-8, ISSN: 0021-9355.
Abstract:Major advances in the techniques of discography since 1968, in conjunction with major strides in the evaluation of pain in recent years, prompted in which Holt's work on the specificity of discography was replicated and extended. For the present study, seven patients who had low-back pain ten volunteers who had been carefully screened, with a questionnaire physical examination, to ensure that they had no history of problems back, had an injection at three levels, and all sessions were videotaped of the pain, and the discs were imaged with computed tomography. raters, who were blind to the condition of the participant, graded each normal or abnormal on the basis of findings on magnetic resonance imaging that had been made before the injection and computed tomography (discography) were done. There was only one disagreement between the ratings that were made on the basis of the magnetic resonance images those that were made on the basis of the discograms. Each participant pain-related response was evaluated independently by two raters who v the videotapes of the discography. Inter-rater reliability was 0.99, 0.88 for the evaluation of intensity of the pain, pain-related behavior similarity of the pain to pain that the subject had had before the in 17 per cent(five) of the thirty discs and for five of the ten subjects. (ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS) Author.

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