Endplate lesions in the lumbar spine: a novel MRI-based classification scheme and epidemiology in low back pain patients.

Purpose: The aims of the study were to introduce a classification scheme for endplate lesions based on T2-weighted magnetic resonance imaging and to detect possible associations between endplate lesions and other variables such as age, sex, disc degeneration and Modic changes in a large population.

Methods: MRI images of 996 low back pain patients were collected. All intervertebral spaces were classified as "normal", "wavy/irregular", "notched", "Schmorl's node" and "fracture".

The role of imaging specialists as authors of systematic reviews on diagnostic and interventional imaging and its impact on scientific quality: report from the EuroAIM Evidence-based Radiology Working Group.

Purpose: To evaluate the inclusion of radiologists or nuclear medicine physicians (imaging specialists) as authors of systematic reviews (SRs) on imaging and imaging-guided diagnostic procedures and to determine the impact of imaging specialists' presence as authors on the overall quality of the reviews.

Materials And Methods: A MEDLINE and EMBASE search was performed for SRs of diagnostic and interventional image-guided procedures that were published from January 2001 to December 2010. SRs about procedures primarily performed by nonimaging specialists were excluded.