Low back pain has major consequences for both the individual as well as for the society which often results in sick leave from work. Unfortunately, health care today lacks diagnostic techniques and procedures necessary to select and treat patients who would most benefit from treatment. Histogram analysis based on MRI imaging has the potential to display disc heterogeneity and possibly depict painful discs. A total of 98 histograms of 49 intervertebral discs were generated based on three mid-sagittal slices of high quality T2W MRI images and T2-maps. Using MATLAB, a two component Gaussian mixture distribution model was fitted to the histogram data in order to retrieve disc heterogeneity measures. Mann-Whitney U-test displayed a significant difference in disc heterogeneity measures with increased Pfirrmann grade.
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