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Related Experiment Videos

Thoracic discography. A safe and reliable technique

K P Schellhas1, S R Pollei, R H Dorwart

  • 1Center for Diagnostic Imaging, St. Louis Park, Minnesota.

Spine
|September 15, 1994
PubMed
Summary
This summary is machine-generated.

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Thoracic discography is a safe and reliable procedure for diagnosing thoracic disc degeneration. This tertiary diagnostic tool helps determine if MR-identified disc issues correlate with patient pain.

Area of Science:

  • Spine diagnostics
  • Interventional radiology
  • Pain management

Background:

  • Magnetic resonance (MR) imaging is crucial for identifying thoracic disc degeneration.
  • Clinical correlation is needed to confirm if degenerated discs cause pain.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To assess the safety and reliability of thoracic discography.
  • To evaluate its utility in diagnosing thoracic disc degeneration in painful patients.

Main Methods:

  • Retrospective analysis of 100 thoracic discograms in outpatients with clinical pain.
  • MR imaging identified suspect discs; these and control levels were injected with contrast or saline.
  • Patients reported pain concordance and intensity (0-10) post-injection.

Main Results:

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  • No serious complications were reported.
  • Discs with anular tears or degeneration were painful in approximately 75% of cases.
  • Clinical concordance was around 50%; control levels were typically painless.

Conclusions:

  • Thoracic discography is a safe tertiary diagnostic procedure when performed by experienced individuals.
  • It reliably determines if degenerated discs seen on MR imaging are the source of clinical pain.