Differences in MRI measurements of lateral recesses and foramina in degenerative lumbar segments in upright versus decubitus symptomatic patients

• Published in: Radiología (English ed.) 2021-03
• Main Authors: García Isidro, M, Ferreiro Pérez, A, Fernández López-Peláez, M S, Moeinvaziri, M, Fernández García, P
• Format: Article
• Language: eng ; spa
• ISSN: 2173-5107
• DOI: 10.1016/j.rx.2021.01.003

To evaluate differences in measurements of the lateral recesses and foramina in degenerative lumbar segments on MR images in symptomatic patients obtained with the patient standing versus lying down and to analyze the relationship between possible differences and patients' symptoms. We studied 207 disc levels in 175 patients aged between 17 and 75 years (median: 47 years) with low back pain. All patients underwent MRI in the decubitus position with their legs extended, followed by MRI in the standing position. We calculated the difference in the measurements of the lateral recesses (in mm) and in the foramina (area in mm and smallest diameter in mm) obtained in the two positions. To eliminate the effects of possible errors in measurement, we selected cases in which the difference between the measurements obtained in the two positions was ≥10%; we used Student's t-tests for paired samples to analyze the entire group and subgroups of patients according to age, sex, grade of disc degeneration, and postural predominance of symptoms. Overall, the measurements of the spaces were lower when patients were standing. For the lateral recesses, we observed differences ≥10% in 68 (33%) right recesses and in 65 (31.5%) left recesses; when patients were standing, decreases were much more common than increases (26% vs. 7%, respectively, on the right side and 24% vs. 7.5%, respectively, on the left side; p