Disc degeneration in low back pain: a 17-year follow-up study using magnetic resonance imaging.

Study Design: A prospective, cohort clinical and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) study of patients with low back pain.

Objective: To study if lumbar disc degeneration (DD), diagnosed in young patients with low back pain by using MRI will predict chronic pain, disc herniation, or functional disability after a 17-year follow-up.

Summary Of Background Data: In 1987, 75 male Finnish conscripts aged 20 years, with low back pain hindering their military service, were studied using MRI at 0.

Narrowing of lumbar spinal canal predicts chronic low back pain more accurately than intervertebral disc degeneration: a magnetic resonance imaging study in young Finnish male conscripts.

The objective of this magnetic resonance imaging study was to evaluate the role of degenerative changes, developmental spinal stenosis, and compression of spinal nerve roots in chronic low back (CLBP) and radicular pain in Finnish conscripts. The degree of degeneration, protrusion, and herniation of the intervertebral discs and stenosis of the nerve root canals was evaluated, and the midsagittal diameter and cross-sectional area of the lumbar vertebrae canal were measured in 108 conscripts with CLBP and 90 asymptomatic controls. The midsagittal diameters at L1-L4 levels were significantly smaller in the patients with CLBP than in the controls.

Long-term vertebral changes attributable to postoperative lumbar discitis: a retrospective study of six cases.

Unlabelled: A clinical, plain radiographic, and magnetic resonance imaging retrospective followup study was done on six patients with postoperative septic L4-L5 lumbar spondylodiscitis to identify the characteristic long-term radiographic findings predicting the clinical outcome. The mean followup was 12 years (range, 9-13 years). Three patients had moderate low-back pain and two were handicapped.