STUDY DESIGN: Retrospective image-based analysis. OBJECTIVE: To measure endplate three-dimensional (3D) geometry, endplate changes in vivo and to investigate correlations between disc degeneration and endplate 3D geometry dependent on symptoms of low back pain (LBP). SUMMARY OF BACKGROUND DATA: It has been hypothesized that alteration of load transmission from the nucleus pulposus to the annulus fibrosus affects vertebral endplate geometry. METHODS: 3D surface models of inferior/superior lumbar endplates were created from computed tomography scans of n = 92 volunteers with and without LBP. Disc degeneration was evaluated using Pfirrmann scale. Concavity in both coronal and sagittal planes was assessed with the Concavity Index (unitless; larger than 1: concave; flat: 1; and less than 1: convex, respectively). Endplate area and disc height distribution were computed and the effects from demographics and spinal degeneration were sought with an analysis of variance model. RESULTS: Both sagittal and coronal planes revealed significantly decreased concavity in those with terminal grade 5 disc degeneration (mean 0.833 ± 0.235) compared to the other grades in the cohort. Older subjects presented with larger endplate areas than the younger subjects (P = 0.0148) at L4-S1. Overall, symptomatic subjects had significantly larger endplate areas (P = 0.022), especially at the lower lumbar levels (P < 0.001). Analysis of variance showed that sex, disc level, disc degeneration grade, and disc height reached significance (P < 0.0001) as influential parameters in both Concavity Index cases. CONCLUSION: With advancing intervertebral disc degeneration, endplates become more convex over time in both sagittal and coronal planes. Our findings implicate the endplate changes with advancing disc degeneration in the shift in load transmission from the nucleus pulposus to the annulus fibrosus, resulting in changes within the curvature of the endplates. This is also the first study to describe the direct impact of age, sex, and LBP on vertebral endplate anatomy. LEVEL OF EVIDENCE: 5.
STUDY DESIGN: Retrospective image-based analysis. OBJECTIVE: To measure endplate three-dimensional (3D) geometry, endplate changes in vivo and to investigate correlations between disc degeneration and endplate 3D geometry dependent on symptoms of low back pain (LBP). SUMMARY OF BACKGROUND DATA: It has been hypothesized that alteration of load transmission from the nucleus pulposus to the annulus fibrosus affects vertebral endplate geometry. METHODS: 3D surface models of inferior/superior lumbar endplates were created from computed tomography scans of n = 92 volunteers with and without LBP. Disc degeneration was evaluated using Pfirrmann scale. Concavity in both coronal and sagittal planes was assessed with the Concavity Index (unitless; larger than 1: concave; flat: 1; and less than 1: convex, respectively). Endplate area and disc height distribution were computed and the effects from demographics and spinal degeneration were sought with an analysis of variance model. RESULTS: Both sagittal and coronal planes revealed significantly decreased concavity in those with terminal grade 5 disc degeneration (mean 0.833 ± 0.235) compared to the other grades in the cohort. Older subjects presented with larger endplate areas than the younger subjects (P = 0.0148) at L4-S1. Overall, symptomatic subjects had significantly larger endplate areas (P = 0.022), especially at the lower lumbar levels (P < 0.001). Analysis of variance showed that sex, disc level, disc degeneration grade, and disc height reached significance (P < 0.0001) as influential parameters in both Concavity Index cases. CONCLUSION: With advancing intervertebral disc degeneration, endplates become more convex over time in both sagittal and coronal planes. Our findings implicate the endplate changes with advancing disc degeneration in the shift in load transmission from the nucleus pulposus to the annulus fibrosus, resulting in changes within the curvature of the endplates. This is also the first study to describe the direct impact of age, sex, and LBP on vertebral endplate anatomy. LEVEL OF EVIDENCE: 5.
Authors: Peter Simon; Alejandro A Espinoza Orías; Gunnar B J Andersson; Howard S An; Nozomu Inoue Journal: Spine (Phila Pa 1976) Date: 2012-05-20 Impact factor: 3.468
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Authors: E B van der Houwen; P Baron; A G Veldhuizen; J G M Burgerhof; P M A van Ooijen; G J Verkerke Journal: Ann Biomed Eng Date: 2009-10-30 Impact factor: 3.934
Authors: Theo Vos; Abraham D Flaxman; Mohsen Naghavi; Rafael Lozano; Catherine Michaud; Majid Ezzati; Kenji Shibuya; Joshua A Salomon; Safa Abdalla; Victor Aboyans; Jerry Abraham; Ilana Ackerman; Rakesh Aggarwal; Stephanie Y Ahn; Mohammed K Ali; Miriam Alvarado; H Ross Anderson; Laurie M Anderson; Kathryn G Andrews; Charles Atkinson; Larry M Baddour; Adil N Bahalim; Suzanne Barker-Collo; Lope H Barrero; David H Bartels; Maria-Gloria Basáñez; Amanda Baxter; Michelle L Bell; Emelia J Benjamin; Derrick Bennett; Eduardo Bernabé; Kavi Bhalla; Bishal Bhandari; Boris Bikbov; Aref Bin Abdulhak; Gretchen Birbeck; James A Black; Hannah Blencowe; Jed D Blore; Fiona Blyth; Ian Bolliger; Audrey Bonaventure; Soufiane Boufous; Rupert Bourne; Michel Boussinesq; Tasanee Braithwaite; Carol Brayne; Lisa Bridgett; Simon Brooker; Peter Brooks; Traolach S Brugha; Claire Bryan-Hancock; Chiara Bucello; Rachelle Buchbinder; Geoffrey Buckle; Christine M Budke; Michael Burch; Peter Burney; Roy Burstein; Bianca Calabria; Benjamin Campbell; Charles E Canter; Hélène Carabin; Jonathan Carapetis; Loreto Carmona; Claudia Cella; Fiona Charlson; Honglei Chen; Andrew Tai-Ann Cheng; David Chou; Sumeet S Chugh; Luc E Coffeng; Steven D Colan; Samantha Colquhoun; K Ellicott Colson; John Condon; Myles D Connor; Leslie T Cooper; Matthew Corriere; Monica Cortinovis; Karen Courville de Vaccaro; William Couser; Benjamin C Cowie; Michael H Criqui; Marita Cross; Kaustubh C Dabhadkar; Manu Dahiya; Nabila Dahodwala; James Damsere-Derry; Goodarz Danaei; Adrian Davis; Diego De Leo; Louisa Degenhardt; Robert Dellavalle; Allyne Delossantos; Julie Denenberg; Sarah Derrett; Don C Des Jarlais; Samath D Dharmaratne; Mukesh Dherani; Cesar Diaz-Torne; Helen Dolk; E Ray Dorsey; Tim Driscoll; Herbert Duber; Beth Ebel; Karen Edmond; Alexis Elbaz; Suad Eltahir Ali; Holly Erskine; Patricia J Erwin; Patricia Espindola; Stalin E Ewoigbokhan; Farshad Farzadfar; Valery Feigin; David T Felson; Alize Ferrari; Cleusa P Ferri; Eric M Fèvre; Mariel M Finucane; Seth Flaxman; Louise Flood; Kyle Foreman; Mohammad H Forouzanfar; Francis Gerry R Fowkes; Richard Franklin; Marlene Fransen; Michael K Freeman; Belinda J Gabbe; Sherine E Gabriel; Emmanuela Gakidou; Hammad A Ganatra; Bianca Garcia; Flavio Gaspari; Richard F Gillum; Gerhard Gmel; Richard Gosselin; Rebecca Grainger; Justina Groeger; Francis Guillemin; David Gunnell; Ramyani Gupta; Juanita Haagsma; Holly Hagan; Yara A Halasa; Wayne Hall; Diana Haring; Josep Maria Haro; James E Harrison; Rasmus Havmoeller; Roderick J Hay; Hideki Higashi; Catherine Hill; Bruno Hoen; Howard Hoffman; Peter J Hotez; Damian Hoy; John J Huang; Sydney E Ibeanusi; Kathryn H Jacobsen; Spencer L James; Deborah Jarvis; Rashmi Jasrasaria; Sudha Jayaraman; Nicole Johns; Jost B Jonas; Ganesan Karthikeyan; Nicholas Kassebaum; Norito Kawakami; Andre Keren; Jon-Paul Khoo; Charles H King; Lisa Marie Knowlton; Olive Kobusingye; Adofo Koranteng; Rita Krishnamurthi; Ratilal Lalloo; Laura L Laslett; Tim Lathlean; Janet L Leasher; Yong Yi Lee; James Leigh; Stephen S Lim; Elizabeth Limb; John Kent Lin; Michael Lipnick; Steven E Lipshultz; Wei Liu; Maria Loane; Summer Lockett Ohno; Ronan Lyons; Jixiang Ma; Jacqueline Mabweijano; Michael F MacIntyre; Reza Malekzadeh; Leslie Mallinger; Sivabalan Manivannan; Wagner Marcenes; Lyn March; David J Margolis; Guy B Marks; Robin Marks; Akira Matsumori; Richard Matzopoulos; Bongani M Mayosi; John H McAnulty; Mary M McDermott; Neil McGill; John McGrath; Maria Elena Medina-Mora; Michele Meltzer; George A Mensah; Tony R Merriman; Ana-Claire Meyer; Valeria Miglioli; Matthew Miller; Ted R Miller; Philip B Mitchell; Ana Olga Mocumbi; Terrie E Moffitt; Ali A Mokdad; Lorenzo Monasta; Marcella Montico; Maziar Moradi-Lakeh; Andrew Moran; Lidia Morawska; Rintaro Mori; Michele E Murdoch; Michael K Mwaniki; Kovin Naidoo; M Nathan Nair; Luigi Naldi; K M Venkat Narayan; Paul K Nelson; Robert G Nelson; Michael C Nevitt; Charles R Newton; Sandra Nolte; Paul Norman; Rosana Norman; Martin O'Donnell; Simon O'Hanlon; Casey Olives; Saad B Omer; Katrina Ortblad; Richard Osborne; Doruk Ozgediz; Andrew Page; Bishnu Pahari; Jeyaraj Durai Pandian; Andrea Panozo Rivero; Scott B Patten; Neil Pearce; Rogelio Perez Padilla; Fernando Perez-Ruiz; Norberto Perico; Konrad Pesudovs; David Phillips; Michael R Phillips; Kelsey Pierce; Sébastien Pion; Guilherme V Polanczyk; Suzanne Polinder; C Arden Pope; Svetlana Popova; Esteban Porrini; Farshad Pourmalek; Martin Prince; Rachel L Pullan; Kapa D Ramaiah; Dharani Ranganathan; Homie Razavi; Mathilda Regan; Jürgen T Rehm; David B Rein; Guiseppe Remuzzi; Kathryn Richardson; Frederick P Rivara; Thomas Roberts; Carolyn Robinson; Felipe Rodriguez De Leòn; Luca Ronfani; Robin Room; Lisa C Rosenfeld; Lesley Rushton; Ralph L Sacco; Sukanta Saha; Uchechukwu Sampson; Lidia Sanchez-Riera; Ella Sanman; David C Schwebel; James Graham Scott; Maria Segui-Gomez; Saeid Shahraz; Donald S Shepard; Hwashin Shin; Rupak Shivakoti; David Singh; Gitanjali M Singh; Jasvinder A Singh; Jessica Singleton; David A Sleet; Karen Sliwa; Emma Smith; Jennifer L Smith; Nicolas J C Stapelberg; Andrew Steer; Timothy Steiner; Wilma A Stolk; Lars Jacob Stovner; Christopher Sudfeld; Sana Syed; Giorgio Tamburlini; Mohammad Tavakkoli; Hugh R Taylor; Jennifer A Taylor; William J Taylor; Bernadette Thomas; W Murray Thomson; George D Thurston; Imad M Tleyjeh; Marcello Tonelli; Jeffrey A Towbin; Thomas Truelsen; Miltiadis K Tsilimbaris; Clotilde Ubeda; Eduardo A Undurraga; Marieke J van der Werf; Jim van Os; Monica S Vavilala; N Venketasubramanian; Mengru Wang; Wenzhi Wang; Kerrianne Watt; David J Weatherall; Martin A Weinstock; Robert Weintraub; Marc G Weisskopf; Myrna M Weissman; Richard A White; Harvey Whiteford; Steven T Wiersma; James D Wilkinson; Hywel C Williams; Sean R M Williams; Emma Witt; Frederick Wolfe; Anthony D Woolf; Sarah Wulf; Pon-Hsiu Yeh; Anita K M Zaidi; Zhi-Jie Zheng; David Zonies; Alan D Lopez; Christopher J L Murray; Mohammad A AlMazroa; Ziad A Memish Journal: Lancet Date: 2012-12-15 Impact factor: 79.321