Clinical Efficacy Of Calcitonin Compared To Celecoxib In Type?modic Changes:A Retrospective Study

Objective The objective of this study was to compare the efficacy of calcitonin with celecoxib in the treatment of patients with non-specific low back pain(LBP)and Modic changes type ?(MC1).Patients and methods The study was a retrospective observational study with 117 patients who had non-specific LBP and MC1 appeared as bone marrow lesions(BMLs)on magnetic resonance imaging(MRI).Between October 2013 and March 2016,62 patients were injected intramuscularly calcitonin 50 IU once daily and 55 patients were treated with celecoxib 20 mg twice per day for 4 weeks for the treatment of LBP associated with MC1 on MRI.Visual Analogue Scale(VAS)(0-10)and Oswestry Disability Index(ODI)(0-100)questionnaires were acquired from clinical records to evaluate LBP perception and degree of disability.Imaging data were also collected before and after treatment.Results Significant improvements were found in VAS and ODI at post-treatment compared with baseline in both groups(P < 0.05).Meanwhile,there was a significant difference between calcitonin group and celecoxib group at both 4 weeks and 3 months follow-up(4 weeks: VAS 4.46 ± 1.58 versus 5.10 ± 1.43,ODI 20.32 ± 9.64 versus 24.08 ± 7.60;3 months: VAS 3.70 ± 1.74 versus 4.54 ± 1.61,ODI 16.67 ± 9.04 versus 20.98 ± 9.31;P < 0.05 for all).Moreover,the proportion of patients with a significant change in LBP scales was higher in the calcitonin group(4 weeks: VAS 50.00 % versus 25.45 %,ODI 54.83 % versus 29.09 %;3 months: VAS 58.06 % versus 38.18 %,ODI 59.67 % versus 40.00 %;P < 0.05 for all).According to MRI,there were 43.54% patients showed improvement in calcitonin group compared with 23.63% patients in celecoxib group(P < 0.05).Conclusion There was greater short-term efficacy of calcitonin compared with celecoxib in patients with LBP and MC1 on MRI.