BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE Annular tears and nuclear degeneration often occur concurrently, but their temporal association remains unknown. The purpose of this study was to assess whether annular tears precede nuclear degeneration and whether the evolution of nuclear degeneration is affected by presence of annular tears. MATERIALS AND METHODS From our radiology report data base, 46 patients with ...

OBJECTIVE To investigate the surgical outcome of a universal pedicle screw-V rod system and isthmic bone grafting for isthmic spondylolysis. METHODS Twenty-four patients with isthmic spondylolysis at L5 and grade 0-I spondylolisthesis (Meyerding classification) received isthmic bone graft and stabilization using the universal pedicle screw-V rod system. Back pain was evaluated using the visua...

Study Design Single-center, retrospective study. Objective Suboptimal concentrations of vitamin D have been linked to hip and knee osteoarthritis in large, population-based cohort studies. We sought to examine the association of vitamin D levels with intervertebral disk disease. Methods From January 2010 through May 2011, 91 consecutive, eligible adult spine surgery patients who had undergone c...

Department of Radiology and Center for Imaging Science, Samsung Medical Center, Sungkyunkwan University School of Medicine, Korea Department of Preventive Medicine, School of Medicine, Kyung Hee University, Korea Received December 15, 2009 ; Accepted February 16, 2010 Address reprint requests to : Young Cheol Yoon, M.D., Department of Radiology, Samsung Medical Center, Sungkyunkwan University S...

To identify regions involved in tissue specific regulation of transcription of the alpha1(VI) collagen chain, transgenic mice were generated carrying various portions of the gene's 5'-flanking sequence fused to the E. coli beta-galactosidase gene. Analysis of the transgene expression pattern by X-gal staining of embryos revealed that: (a) The proximal 0.6 kb of promoter sequence activated trans...