Lumbar spine MRI annotation with intervertebral disc height and Pfirrmann grade predictions.

Many lumbar spine diseases are caused by defects or degeneration of lumbar intervertebral discs (IVD) and are usually diagnosed through inspection of the patient's lumbar spine MRI. Efficient and accurate assessments of the lumbar spine are essential but a challenge due to the size of the clinical radiologist workforce not keeping pace with the demand for radiology services. In this paper, we present a methodology to automatically annotate lumbar spine IVDs with their height and degenerative state which is quantified using the Pfirrmann grading system.

Automated measurement of anteroposterior diameter and foraminal widths in MRI images for lumbar spinal stenosis diagnosis.

Lumbar Spinal Stenosis causes low back pain through pressures exerted on the spinal nerves. This can be verified by measuring the anteroposterior diameter and foraminal widths of the patient's lumbar spine. Our goal is to develop a novel strategy for assessing the extent of Lumbar Spinal Stenosis by automatically calculating these distances from the patient's lumbar spine MRI.