European spine journal : official publication of the European Spine Society, the European Spinal Deformity Society, and the European Section of the Cervical Spine Research Society
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Aim of this study was to investigate RANKL and osteoprotegerin plasma concentrations in patients affected by disc herniation, the most common epiphenomenon of disc degenerative diseases, and in a matched cohort of healthy subjects and whether the expression of these markers was associated to a polymorphism of the vitamin D receptor gene. ⋯ Whether vertebral bone changes precede or follow cartilage deterioration in intervertebral disc degeneration is not known. Our results suggest a reduced bone turnover rate, associated to a specific genetic background, in patients affected by lumbar disc herniation which could be one of the favoring factors for disc degeneration.
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The purpose of this study is to determine if there are any demographic and reporting differences between patients who respond and those who refuse to respond to postal questionnaires from the Danish national spine database, DaneSpine. ⋯ Missing data from 12 % of patients do not seem to bias conclusions that can be drawn from the DaneSpine database at the Center for Spine Surgery and Research at Lillebaelt Hospital.
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To verify the clinical applicability of a modified classification system in distractive-extension cervical spine injury that reflects the degrees of soft tissue damage and spinal cord injury while complementing previous Allen classification and subaxial cervical spine injury classification (SLIC) system. ⋯ The proposed classification and scoring system to complement the Allen classification and SLIC system with respect to the degrees of soft tissue damage and spinal cord injury is considered effective for diagnosing and determining therapeutic directions and prognosis in cases of cervical spine extension injury.
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A retrospective radiographic study was carried out to analyze the effect of lumbar disc herniation on the kinetic motion of adjacent segments. ⋯ Although disc height, translational motion, and angular variation are significantly affected at the level of a disc herniation, no significant changes are apparent in adjacent segments. Our results indicate that herniated discs have no effect on range of motion at adjacent levels regardless of the degree of disc degeneration or the size of disc herniation, suggesting that the natural progression of disc degeneration and adjacent segment disease may be separate, unrelated processes within the lumbar spine.
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Does lumbar fusion lead to accelerated adjacent segment disc degeneration (ASDD) or is it explained by genetics and aging? The influence of genetics on ASDD remains to be explored. This study assesses whether the disc space height adjacent to a fused segment is associated with candidate gene single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs). ⋯ Age was the most significant determinant of adjacent segment disc space height followed by genetic factors, specifically inflammatory genes. Fusion explained a statistically significant but small proportion of the total variance. Much of the variance remained to be explained.