Ultra-short echo time MR imaging in assessing cartilage endplate damage and relationship between its lesion and disc degeneration for chronic low back pain patients

• Published in: BMC medical imaging 2023-04, Vol.23 (1), p.60-60, Article 60
• Main Authors: Ji, Zhilin, Li, Yue, Dou, Weiqiang, Zhu, Yaru, Shi, Yin, Zou, Yuefen
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Back pain; Backache; Bandwidths; Biomechanics; Blood diseases; Bony vertebral endplate; Cartilage; Cartilage endplate; Chronic low back pain; Criteria; Damage assessment; Defects; Degeneration; Disc degeneration; Humans; Image contrast; Image quality; Intervertebral Disc Degeneration - diagnostic imaging; Intervertebral Disc Degeneration - pathology; Intervertebral discs; Low back pain; Low Back Pain - diagnostic imaging; Lumbar Vertebrae - diagnostic imaging; Magnetic resonance imaging; Magnetic Resonance Imaging - methods; Mathematical analysis; Medical imaging; Medical research; Medicine, Experimental; Pain; Physiological aspects; Quality assessment; Signal to noise ratio; Ultra-short echo time; Vertebrae
• ISSN: 1471-2342; 1471-2342
• DOI: 10.1186/s12880-023-01014-5

To investigate the feasibility of ultra-short echo time (UTE) magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) in the assessment of cartilage endplate (CEP) damage and further evaluate the relationship between total endplate score (TEPS) and lumbar intervertebral disc (IVD) degeneration for chronic low back pain patients. IVD were measured in 35 patients using UTE imaging at 3T MR. Subtracted UTE images between short and long TEs were obtained to depict anatomy of CEP. The signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) and contrast-to-noise ratio (CNR) were calculated to assess the image quality quantitatively. A new grading criterion for endplate damage evaluation was developed based on Rajasekaran.S grading system in this study. Two radiologists were employed to evaluate CEP and bony vertebral endplates (VEP) using this new grading criterion and assess TEPS, independently. Cohen's kappa analysis was applied to evaluate the inter-observer agreement of endplate damage assessment between two radiologists, and the Kendall's TAU-B analysis was employed to determine the relationship between TEPS and IVD degeneration evaluated with Pfirrmann grading. Well structural CEP was depicted on subtracted UTE images and confirmed by high SNR (33.06±2.92) and CNR values (9.4±2.08). Qualified subtracted UTE images were used by two radiologists to evaluate the degree of CEP and VEP damage. Excellent inter-observer agreement was confirmed by high value in Cohen's kappa test (0.839, P