• Manuel Oprea, Iulian Popa, Anca Maria Cimpean, Marius Raica, and Dan V Poenaru.
• Second Department of Orthopedics, "Victor Babes" University of Medicine and Pharmacy, Timisoara, Romania.
• In Vivo. 2015 Jan 1; 29 (1): 95-102.

AimTo investigate a possible correlation between the histological and morphometric properties of herniated intervertebral disc, clinical and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) characteristics of patients with lumbar disc degeneration (LDD).Materials And MethodsThirty six patients with LDD were clinically evaluated using Japanese Orthopaedic Association Score (JOAS), visual analogue scale (VAS) for pain in the lower back or in the pelvic limb; MRI-based classification according to Pfirrmann and Modic criteria. All patients underwent decompressive surgery and herniated intervertebral disc samples were histologically and morphometrically analyzed. Data obtained were statistically analyzed for bivariate and partial correlations.ResultsThe mean area size of chondron clusters correlated with age, JOAS (r=-0.385, p=0.032, tau=-0.279, rho=-0.380), Pfirrmann (r=0.505, p=0.002, tau=0.289, rho=0.365) and Modic (r=0.500, p=0.002, tau=0.331, rho=0.419) grading. There was a strong correlation between maximum area size of chondrons and JOAS (r=-0.427, p=0.009, tau=-0.299, rho=-0.430), Pfirrmann changes (r=0.432, p=0.008, tau=0.309, rho=0.388) and Modic endplate changes (r=0.444, p=0.007, tau=0.343, rho=0.434). JOAS correlated with both MRI classifications used for LDD.ConclusionThe intervertebral disc cells tend to aggregate in clusters and the size of the chondrons from LDD correlated with JOAS, Pfirrmann and Modic. JOAS correlates with the imagistic evaluation systems Pfirrmann and Modic.Copyright © 2015 International Institute of Anticancer Research (Dr. John G. Delinassios), All rights reserved.

20 keywords...

hide…