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Facet joint effusion, interspinal ligament edema major sources of lower back pain
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New magnetic resonance (MR) techniques show that facet joint effusion — the collection of fluid in the spinal joints — and interspinal ligament edema, or swelling of the interspinal ligaments, are major sources of lower back pain, according to a recent study.
During the investigation performed at Baskent University Hospital and Alanya Research Center in Antalya, Turkey, 372 patients with lower back pain and 249 healthy patients underwent MRI accompanied by short inversion time inversion recovery (STIR) sequences.
“The most common imaging findings in patients with lower back pain were soft tissue changes, mainly facet joint effusion (85.5%) and interspinal ligament swelling (80.6%),” lead investigator Nefise Cagla Tarhan, MD, said in a press release.
“Soft tissue changes are important in the understanding of lower back pain, and prevention and treatment options should focus more on these changes. A lot of patients — mostly younger patients — come to me with complaints of bad lower back pain; it is a very common community problem,” Tarhan said in the press release.
“With this new MR technique, prevention and treatment options for lower back pain can focus more on soft tissue degenerative changes that cause facet joint effusion and interspinal ligament swelling,” Tarhan added.
The study appears in the October issue of the American Journal of Roentgenology.