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Quantitative [18F]-Naf-PET-MRI Analysis for the Evaluation of Dynamic Bone Turnover in a Patient with Facetogenic Low Back Pain
Published on: August 8, 2019
A modified quantitative MRI analysis method to identify the direction of shift in lumbar disc hydration over the
Hiroshi Takasaki1,2, Edwin C W Lim3
1Department of Physical Therapy, Saitama Prefectural University, Koshigaya, Japan.
Background:
The direction of loading to disc tissue in response to postural changes has been investigated. However, the reported original method may not adequately represent the disc hydration profile.
Objective:
To investigate the reliability of a modified method to measure the direction of shift of disc hydration in response to side-bending.
Methods:
Each lumbar disc of 10 healthy subjects was scanned with T2-weighted magnetic resonance imaging in supine (neutral) position and left side-bending position in lying. A mid-point over the pixel intensity profile line was obtained. The differences in mid-point values between the neutral and side-bending positions were plotted in each direction on a X-Y coordinates plane and the angle (θ) of each plotted point from the X-axis was calculated.
Results:
The Intraclass Correlation Coefficients (ICC) of the mid-point values during left side-bending along the sagittal and coronal directions of the disc ranged between 0.72-0.98 and 0.80-0.96, respectively. It was estimated that calculating θ values twice yielded an ICC of 0.8 at each disc level.
Conclusions:
The modified method was reliable in capturing gross disc hydration profiles. The direction of shift in disc hydration in response to side-bending can be identified using averaged values of θ that was calculated twice.
