Visualization of intervertebral disc degeneration in a cadaveric human lumbar spine using microcomputed tomography.

Gross features of disc degeneration (DD) that are associated with back pain include tears in the anulus fibrosus, structural changes of the endplates, and a collapse of the anulus. The aim of this study is the detailed visualization and microstructural characterization of DD using microcomputed tomography (μCT) and a dedicated image post-processing pipeline. In detail, we investigate a cadaveric spine that shows both types of DD between L1 and L2 and between L2 and L3, respectively.