Siegfried Trattnig1, David Stelzeneder1,
Sabine Goed1, Tatjana Paternostro-Sluga2, Michael
Reissegger1, Tallal Charles Mamisch3, Goetz Hannes
Welsch1,4
1MR Centre - High field MR, Department
of Radiology, Medical University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria; 2Department
of Medical Physics and Rehabilitation, Medical University of Vienna, Vienna,
Austria; 3Department of Orthopedic Surgery, Inselspital, Bern,
Switzerland; 4Department of Trauma Surgery, University Hospital of
Erlangen, Erlangen, Germany
The
objective of our study was to assess the relationship of morphologically
defined lumbar disc pathology with quantitative T2 mapping. Segmental
evaluation of 265 discs of 53 patients with low back pain was performed and
T2 values in different disc compartments were compared to different kinds of
disc pathology. T2 mapping in the lumbar spine at 3 Tesla yields additional
information about the disc matrix and is a promising noninvasive tool to
assess water content and collagen fiber integrity in different disc
pathologies.