Background: Low back pain (LBP) is a leading cause of disability worldwide, but the aetiology remains poorly understood. Finding relevant biomarkers may lead to better understanding of disease mechanisms. Patients with vertebral endplate bone marrow lesions visualised on MRI as Modic changes (MCs) have been proposed as a distinct LBP phenotype, and inflammatory mediators may be involved in the development of MCs.

Objectives: To identify possible serum biomarkers for LBP in patients with MCs.

Methods: In this case control study serum levels of 40 cytokines were compared between patients with LBP and MC type 1 (n=46) or type 2 (n=37) and healthy controls (n=50).

Results: Analyses identified significantly higher levels of six out of 40 cytokines in the MC type 1 group (MC1), and five in the MC type 2 group (MC2) compared with healthy controls. Six cytokines were moderately correlated with pain. Principal component analyses revealed clustering and separation of patients with LBP and controls, capturing 40.8% of the total variance, with 10 cytokines contributing to the separation. Macrophage migration inhibitory factor (MIF) alone accounted for 92% of the total contribution. Further, receiver operating characteristics analysis revealed that MIF showed an acceptable ability to distinguish between patients and controls (area under the curve=0.79).

Conclusions: These results suggest that cytokines may play a role in LBP with MCs. The clinical significance of the findings is unknown. MIF strongly contributed to clustering of patients with LBP with MCs and controls, and might be a biomarker for MCs. Ultimately, these results may guide future research on novel treatments for this patient group.

Download full-text PDF

Source
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8336134PMC
http://dx.doi.org/10.1136/rmdopen-2021-001726DOI Listing

Publication Analysis

Top Keywords

patients lbp
12
macrophage migration
8
migration inhibitory
8
inhibitory factor
8
low pain
8
modic changes
8
levels cytokines
8
healthy controls
8
type group
8
lbp mcs
8

Similar Publications

Basic Science and Pathogenesis.

Alzheimers Dement

December 2024

Department of Neurology, LMU University Hospital, LMU Munich, Munich, Germany.

Background: Lewy body pathology (LBP) is common in autosomal dominant (ADAD) or sporadic Alzheimer disease (sAD). LBP seems to be the most frequent co-pathology in sAD and even in the relatively young ADAD population, where other co-pathologies are rare. Knowledge of neuropathological distribution patterns of LBP and associated survival and genetic characteristics in both AD variants is incomplete.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Purpose: This study aims to investigate how aspirin influences lumbar degeneration by analyzing the effect of aspirin on patients with low back pain (LBP) and concurrent atherosclerosis.

Methods: Using 1:1 nearest neighbor matching based on propensity score matching (PSM), 73 patients who regularly took aspirin were assigned to the aspirin group, while another 73 patients who did not take aspirin formed the control group. Radiographs were used to measure lumbar lordosis (LL) and intervertebral height index (IHI).

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Purpose Of Review: Chronic low back pain (LBP) is a prevalent and debilitating condition affecting millions worldwide. Among emerging interventions, spinal cord stimulation (SCS) has gained attention as a potential alternative for managing chronic LBP, particularly when alternative approaches fail to provide adequate relief.

Recent Findings: This systematic review focuses on both residual pain levels and ability to perform daily tasks after treatment with SCS.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Objectives: The objective of this study is to investigate lipopolysaccharid-binding protein (LBP), zonulin and calprotectin as markers of bacterial translocation, disturbed gut barrier and intestinal inflammation in patients with radiographic axial spondyloarthritis (r-axSpA) during tumour necrosis factor inhibitor (TNFi) therapy and to analyze the association between disease activity, response to treatment and biomarker levels.

Methods: Patients with active r-axSpA of the German Spondyloarthritis Inception Cohort starting TNFi were compared with controls with chronic back pain. Serum levels of LBP, zonulin and calprotectin were measured at baseline and after 1 year of TNFi therapy.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Multiple sclerosis (MS) is a severe brain disease that permanently destroys brain cells, impacting vision, balance, muscle control, and daily activity. This research employs a weighted combination of deep neural networks and optimization techniques for MS disease diagnosis. This method uses slices of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) images as input.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Want AI Summaries of new PubMed Abstracts delivered to your In-box?

Enter search terms and have AI summaries delivered each week - change queries or unsubscribe any time!