The Relation Between The Lumbosacral Spine Saggital Morphology And Intervertebral Disc Degeneration

Background:There are a large number of articles analyzing the performance ofintervertebral disc degeneration in magnetic resonance imaging(MRI) and therelationship between the intervertebral disc degeneration and low back pain.Nonetheless, there are few publications in the literature reporting the relationshipbetween the degree of intervertebral disc degeneration and the lumbosacralmorphology.Object： To investigate the relationship between the lumbosacral saggital morphologyand intervertebral disc degeneration on magnetic resonance imaging(MRI) in a largenumber of low back pain patients.Methods：The magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) of outpatients who went to ourhospital in2009-2011because of low back pain were retrospectively studied. Thepresence and degree of intervertebral disc degeneration was evaluated on saggital T2weighted MRI passing through the midsaggital line,angles of lumbar lordosis,sacraltable and sacral kyphosis were also measured on the same image.The results：The sacral kyphosis and lumbar lordosis angles decreased accompany withthe increasing of the degree of intervertebral disc degeneration, and the sacral tableangle increased in parallel to the increase of the degree of intervertebral discdegeneration, there are statistically significant difference about the angles of lumbar lordosis,sacral kyphosis, and sacral table between personswith(24.31±3.48°,163.45±7.03°,102.97±5.58°,respectively) and without(26.29±3.74°,167.24±6.71°,100.70±3.26°,p=0.001,p=0.001,p=0.002,respectively)intervertebral disc degeneration.besides,a statistically significant difference when talkingabout the angles of lumbar lordosis,sacral kyphosis, and sacral table between personswith (23.97±3.28°,162.67±6.60°,103.31±5.62°, respectively) and without(26.50±3.73°,167.76±6.73°,100.52±3.22°, p<0.0001,p=0.0001,p=0.0001,respectively).conclusion： It shows greatly relevance between the degree of intervertebral discdegeneration and the sacral kyphosis, lumbar lordosis angles and sacral table angle.