Abstract:

BACKGROUND: Previous studies have shown that a variety of environmental factors lead to disc degeneration, and the most important mechanism is the degeneration of the cartilage endplate.
OBJECTIVE: To analyze the relationship between intervertebral disc degeneration and endplate shape.
METHODS: A retrospective analysis of sagittal MRI was performed in 62 patients with discogenic chronic low back pain and 79 patients with radicular symptoms because of herniated nucleus pulposus. The endplate shape was determined according to sagittal T1-weighted MRI, and the disc degeneration was graded on T2-weighted sequences.
RESULTS AND CONCLUSION: Flat and irregular endplates were most common in the lower lumbar spine of people who had disc degeneration. Flat endplate at L5/S1 segment was the most common. In the two groups, disc degeneration degree of concave endplates was lower than those of flat or irregular endplates, and the degree of flat endplate was lower compared with irregular endplate (P < 0.01). The differences in disc degeneration degree of concave and irregular endplates between the two groups had no significance, while disc degeneration degree of flat endplate in the herniated nucleus pulposus group was higher compared with the discogenic chronic low back pain group (P < 0.05). It is indicated that with the severity of disc degeneration, the endplate will gradually change from concavetype shape to flat shape and irregular shape.