• Spine · Sep 2017

    Is the Number of Different MRI Findings More Strongly Associated with Low Back Pain Than Single MRI Findings?

    • Mark J Hancock, Per Kjaer, Peter Kent, Rikke K Jensen, and Tue S Jensen.
    • Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences, Macquarie University, Sydney, Australia.
    • Spine. 2017 Sep 1; 42 (17): 1283-1288.

    Study DesignA cross-sectional and longitudinal analysis using two different datasets.ObjectiveTo investigate if the number of different magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) findings present is more strongly associated with low back pain (LBP) than single MRI findings.Summary Of Background DataMost previous studies have investigated the associations between single MRI findings and back pain rather than investigating combinations of MRI findings. If different individuals have different pathoanatomic sources contributing to their pain, then combinations of MRI findings may be more strongly associated with LBP.MethodsThis study used data from two previous studies that investigated the association between single MRI findings and LBP. One study was a cross-sectional population cohort of 412 people of 40 years; the second was a longitudinal cohort of 76 people recently recovered from LBP who were followed for 12 months. The outcome for the cross-sectional study was presence of LBP during the last year. The outcome for the longitudinal study was days to recurrence of activity limiting LBP. In both datasets, we created an aggregate score of the number of different MRI findings present in each individual and assessed the relationship between this aggregate score and LBP.ResultsThe risk of LBP outcome increased with increasing numbers of different MRI findings. Compared with those with no MRI findings, those with three MRI findings were at substantially greater risk of LBP in the last year (odd ratio = 14.1; 95% confidence interval, 4.32-49.47) in the cross-sectional study, or of future recurrence of LBP (hazard ratio = 12.2; 95% confidence interval 1.26-118.21) in the longitudinal study.ConclusionThe aggregate MRI score was more strongly associated with LBP outcomes than single MRI findings in both datasets. Further investigation of this approach is indicated.Level Of Evidence2.

      Pubmed     Full text   Copy Citation     Plaintext  

      Add institutional full text...

    Notes

     
    Knowledge, pearl, summary or comment to share?
    300 characters remaining
    help        
    You can also include formatting, links, images and footnotes in your notes
    • Simple formatting can be added to notes, such as *italics*, _underline_ or **bold**.
    • Superscript can be denoted by <sup>text</sup> and subscript <sub>text</sub>.
    • Numbered or bulleted lists can be created using either numbered lines 1. 2. 3., hyphens - or asterisks *.
    • Links can be included with: [my link to pubmed](http://pubmed.com)
    • Images can be included with: ![alt text](https://bestmedicaljournal.com/study_graph.jpg "Image Title Text")
    • For footnotes use [^1](This is a footnote.) inline.
    • Or use an inline reference [^1] to refer to a longer footnote elseweher in the document [^1]: This is a long footnote..

    hide…