The correlation between clinical symptom and morphological parameters on magnetic resonance imaging in patients with...

Spondylolisthesis is one of the common causes of spinal pain. There is currently a lack of studies on the correlation between magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and clinical symptoms of patients with spondylolisthesis. This study is aimed to find the correlation between clinical symptoms of L4/L5, L5/S1 lumbar spondylolisthesis, and imaging parameters on MRI.

A retrospective study on 100 patients who were diagnosed with lumbar spondylolisthesis at the L4/L5, L5/S1 levels from August 2022 to February 2023. Parameters on MRI are measured the cross-sectional area of the dural sac (DSA), the cross-sectional area of the spinal canal (SCA), the ligamentum flavum cross-sectional area (LFA), and ligamentum flavum thickness (LFT), anterior-posterior diameter (APD), sliding distance (SD) at the spondylolisthesis level. Clinical symptoms were investigated according to the Visual Analogue Scale (VAS) for grading of pain and the subjective disability was assessed by the Oswestry Disability Index (ODI).

There was no statistically significant difference between SD, APD, SCA, DSA, LFA, and LFT between the mild and moderate pain VAS and severe pain VAS groups. No correlation was found between VAS and SD, APD, SCA, DSA, LFA, and LFT. There is a negative correlation between ODI and APD, SCA, and DSA. The statistically significant difference in APD, SCA, and DSA indexes in the two groups with mild/moderate disability (ODI ≤40%) and the group with severe disability (ODI >40%).

A higher DSA and SCA, APD are associated with lower ODI. Decreased APD, SCA, and DSA are all suggestive of decreased spinal function. However, the MRI findings did not correlate with the patient's clinical pain level.