BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE The present standard for staging intervertebral disk degeneration is a discrete scale, consisting usually of 5 stages. The purpose of this pilot study was to investigate the use of T2 measurements as a continuous measure of intervertebral disk degeneration. METHODS We obtained images in 5 volunteers with a 3D fast spin-echo sequence modified for the purpose of calculati...

STUDY DESIGN T2 mapping was used to quantify moisture content of the lumbar spinal disk nucleus pulposus (NP) and annulus fibrosus before and after exercise stress, and after rest, to evaluate the intervertebral disk function. OBJECTIVE To clarify water retention in intervertebral disks of the lumbar vertebrae by performing magnetic resonance imaging before and after exercise stress and quant...

BACKGROUND Disk-associated cervical spondylomyelopathy (DA-CSM) is a multifactorial neurological disorder in which progressive caudal cervical spinal cord compression is mainly caused by one or more intervertebral disk protrusions. The Doberman pinscher breed seems predisposed for this condition. The underlying cause and pathophysiology of DA-CSM are currently unknown. Recently, wider intervert...

Acta Ortop Bras. 2009; 17(1):46-9 AbStrACt The authors suggest an analysis of the degeneration of intervertebral disks on human cadavers using magnetic resonance imaging. Nine lumbar spines were collected from fresh human cadavers and resonance images were captured. The images were analyzed and classified according to the degeneration grades, with the authors proposing a subdivision of type IV ...

A robust method to segment intervertebral disks and spinal canal in magnetic resonance images is required as part of a precise 3D reconstruction for computer assistance during diskectomy procedure with minimally invasive surgery approach. In this paper, an unsupervised segmentation technique for intervertebral disks and spinal canal from MRI data is presented. The proposed scheme uses a watersh...

PURPOSE To determine the dose of contrast medium and the imaging strategy sufficient to detect diffusion of low-molecular-weight gadolinium-containing contrast media into normal intervertebral disks. METHODS In 11 rabbits, sequential MR images were obtained of the spine for 120 minutes after intravenous injection of gadopentetate dimeglumine in doses of 0.1 to 2.8 mmol/kg. Images were inspect...

The intervertebral disks along the spine provide motion and protection against mechanical loading. The 3 structural components, nucleus pulposus, annulus fibrosus, and cartilage endplate, function as a synergistic unit, though each has its own role. The cells within each of these components have distinct origins in development and morphology, producing specific extracellular matrix proteins tha...

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE The anterior diskoligamentous complex is important for cervical spinal stability. Subjective widening of the disk space after trauma has been used to gauge disruption of the anterior diskoligamentous complex on CT scanning, but no quantitative CT measurements exist to evaluate injury. The purpose of our study was to evaluate if an increased intervertebral disk angle could...