[Degeneration of the intervertebral disc and its diagnostic approach - the possibilities offered by quantitative MRI]

Low back pain is a major cause of disability in the working-age population worldwide, imposing significant costs on healthcare systems. The origin of the pain can most often be traced back to the degeneration of the intervertebral disc. Nevertheless, determining the origin of pain is one of the biggest challenges in everyday medical practice. With its ability to accurately characterize the morphology of the intervertebral disc, magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) is the most frequently indicated and most important imaging diagnostic technic in patients with low back pain. However, determining the cause of low back pain is complicated. Many different imaging features can be associated with low back pain, often present without low back pain. In recent years, several MRI sequences have been developed to diagnose the origin of low back pain. In this article, we review the latest MRI methods, capable of characterizing biochemical changes in the composition of intervertebral discs. These procedures can help in the exact detection of the relationship between disc degeneration and low back pain. Orv Hetil. 2024; 165(32): 1227–1236.