Except in special circumstances, the vertebrae assume a relatively constant anatomic theme and consist of a vertebral body and a vertebral (neural) arch. The vertebral body serves as a pillar, supporting the head and trunk. The posterior margin of the bodies, along with the vertebral arches, forms the bony spinal canal, protecting the spinal cord. The neural arch is formed by paired pedicles an...

Mechanical and mathematical models of human body are the effective instruments for solving the problem of elaboration of protection against impact acceleration, which arise from an accident. These models should describe the dynamics of vertebral column in general and behaviour of intervertebral disks in particular. A great number of mathematical model were proposed for this purposes. The model ...

Alkaptonuria is a rare inborn error of metabolism, which is classified as an orphan disease. It is due to the lack of an enzyme homogentisate 1,2-dioxygenase, which results in an accumulation of homogentisic acid in different areas of the body, including sclera, skin, cardiac valves, articular cartilage of the large joints and intervertebral disks. We present two cases of alkaptonuria resulting...

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE No prior report has comprehensively discussed the intravertebral vacuum cleft sign and the fluid sign on MR images of vertebral osteonecrosis. The purpose of this study was to investigate MR images of osteonecrotic vertebral bodies and adjacent intervertebral disks and vertebral bodies. METHODS We retrospectively reviewed MR images of patients with vertebral osteonecros...

BACKGROUND Proinflammatory cytokine IL-6 and anti-inflammatory cytokine IL-10 are expressed in herniated intervertebral disks of Kazakhs, but their significance is not yet understood. METHODS Specimens of herniated lumbar disk were collected from 30 patients with single disk herniation during lumbar discectomy. As a control, 10 specimens were collected postmortem from the cadavers of individu...

OBJECTIVES To demonstrate relative movement of the vertebrae and variations in intradiskal pressure during 2 different lumbar spinal manipulations, in flexion or extension, in 2 unembalmed cadavers. DESIGN A pressure sensor was inserted into the L3-4 disk in cadaver 1 and into the L1-2 to L4-5 disks in cadaver 2. Two adjacent vertebrae (L3 and L4 in cadaver 1, and L4 and L5 in cadaver 2) were...

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE Annular tears of lumbar intervertebral disks are found in both symptomatic and asymptomatic persons; therefore, it is difficult to determine whether these findings indicate acute abnormality. Our purpose was to determine whether the MR imaging findings of tears (ie, hyperintensity and contrast enhancement) of the annulus fibrosus persist or resolve over time. METHODS A ...

The results of magnetic resonance (MR) imaging and computed tomography (CT) in 18 patients with known degenerative disk disease of the lumbar spine were compared. In 60 intervertebral disk levels studied, there were 17 disks with degeneration and disk bulge, and 15 herniated disks. Final diagnoses were based on several factors, with surgical confirmation in five patients. There was good correla...

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE Intervertebral disk biochemical composition could be accessed in vivo by T1ρ and T2 relaxometry. We found no studies in the literature comparing different segmentation methods for data extraction using these techniques. Our aim was to compare different manual segmentation methods used to extract T1ρ and T2 relaxation times of intervertebral disks from MR imaging. Seven di...