Abstract #4224

Assessment of degenerative changes in disc endplates using DCEMRI and T1

Volkan Emre Arpinar ¹ and L Tugan Muftuler ^1,2

¹ Department of Neurosurgery, Medical College of Wisconsin, Milwaukee, Wisconsin, United States, ² Center for Imaging Research, Medical College of Wisconsin, Wisconsin, United States

Degenerating intervertebral discs sometimes lead to degenerative changes in adjacent vertebral bodies, which are classified based on the appearance of vertebral marrow in T1 and T2 weighted MRI. Although this classification is widely accepted, those images may not be sufficiently sensitive to early or transitional changes. Initial changes associated with vascularization and edema can be studied by Dynamic contrast enhanced MRI (DCEMRI). Additional information can be obtained from T1 lower case Greek rho

, which is reported to increase in various inflamed tissues. Our findings show significant increases in both DCEMRI and T1 lower case Greek rho

with degeneration in disc endplates.

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