DETECTION OF INTER-VERTEBRAL DISC DEGENERATION USING T1? MRI

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This subproject is one of many research subprojects utilizing the resources provided by a Center grant funded by NIH/NCRR. The subproject and investigator (PI) may have received primary funding from another NIH source, and thus could be represented in other CRISP entries. The institution listed is for the Center, which is not necessarily the institution for the investigator. Degenerative disc disease (DDD) is the most common cause of back-related disability among North American adults. DDD translates into nearly 100 billion dollars in health-related expenditures in the United States alone. Among those diagnosed with DDD, thousands of individuals undergo corrective spinal surgery such as total disc replacement and lumbar fusion. Even with the prevalence of these surgeries, overall long-term effectiveness of the surgery in regards of total spinal health is unclear. While surgery may treat the specific location that is deemed to be causing pain and discomfort, the effect of the surgery on the surrounding spinal tissue is uncertain. It is possible that surgical intervention may begin to artificially accelerate the progression of DDD on apparently healthy discs. Conventional T1 and T2 imaging techniques are useful for observing late structural morphological changes to the inter-vertebral discs (IVDs) but are insensitive to early biochemical changes. The T1¿ relaxation time has been shown to have enhanced sensitivity and specificity to early degeneration of the spinal discs. In this study, we used the ability of T1¿ MRI to detect early biochemical changes within the nucleus pulposus of healthy discs with individuals who have undergone spinal surgery. The purpose of our study is to determine the relationship between T1¿ and disc opening pressure acquired via invasive provocative discography.