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Related Experiment Videos

Discography. a review.

E J Carragee1, T F Alamin

  • 1Stanford University School of Medicine, 300 Pasteur Drive, Room R171, Stanford, CA 94305, USA.

The Spine Journal : Official Journal of the North American Spine Society
|November 1, 2003
PubMed
Summary
This summary is machine-generated.

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Discography, used for diagnosing spine pain, has questionable validity. Patient factors significantly impact results, with specificity ranging from 20% to 90%, necessitating cautious interpretation for treatment planning.

Area of Science:

  • Spine diagnostics
  • Pain management
  • Medical imaging interpretation

Background:

  • Discography is a primary diagnostic tool for discogenic back and neck pain.
  • It plays a crucial role in developing treatment strategies for chronic axial spine pain.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To review the history and current applications of discography.
  • To discuss the technique, validity, and recent challenges to discography's reliability.

Main Methods:

  • A selective review of peer-reviewed discography literature from 1967 to 2000.
  • Systematic review of articles focusing on technique, interpretation, and validity.

Main Results:

  • Discography specificity varies greatly with patient characteristics, from 20% in those with chronic pain and psychiatric factors to 90% in healthy individuals.

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  • Patient reliability in reporting pain concordance is poor.
  • No data on discography's sensitivity was found.

    • Conclusions:

    • Clinicians must critically evaluate discography's validity when guiding patient treatment.
    • Recent findings on specificity warrant a more cautious approach to interpreting discography results.