16ème Réunion Annuelle du GIEDA INTER RACHIS

12 et 13 décembre 2003

Centre Français du Commerce Extérieur

10 Avenue d’Iéna – 75016 PARIS

 

Nom :    Campana                                                     Prénom : Sophie

 

e.mail : sophie @this.is

 

TITRE : Human intervertebral disc imaging and mechanical behaviour

 

AUTEURS :   S. Campana1,2,  J. A. de Guise1, L. Rillardon2, E. Charpail2, P. Després1, D. Mitton2, W. Skalli2

1Laboratoire de Recherche en Imagerie et Orthopédie, ETS-CHUM, Montréal, Québec, Canada

2Laboratoire de Biomécanique, ENSAM-CNRS, Paris, France

 

Texte : INTRODUCTION – Low back pain often originates in mechanical disorders, such as osteoarthritis or degenerative disc disease. Intervertebral disc (IVD) has no apparent density on plain radiographs ; therefore, space narrowing and vacuum phenomenon are among the few clinical indications of disc degeneration. The use of a new low-dose radiological system based on a gaseous micro-pattern detector technology, combined with dual-energy imaging, can provide an innovative way to assess disc diseases and their influence on the mechanical properties. This paper investigates how analysis of low-dose radiological imaging used in dual-energy mode, MRI and discograms can contribute to early diagnosis of IVDs degeneration and appraisal of their mechanical behaviour. METHODS – Twenty-two fresh lumbar discs (14 L1-L2 and 8 L4-L5, aged 55 to 93) were imaged and mechanically tested within 72 hours after harvesting. Low-dose radiographs were acquired at several energies, and MRI sequences (T1W and T2W) as well as discographies were obtained. Flexion-extension, lateral bending and torsion 10 N.m moments were applied to the associated functional spinal units (FSU composed of two vertebrae and intervertebral soft tissue), first intact and second after posterior arch resection, for range of motion (ROM) recording. Compression (400N) and creep (10 min) were then performed on each FSU. Finally, the discs were dissected in their transverse plane for macroscopic inspection. They were graded according to their degenerative level using each imaging modality. Osteophytes, Schmorl’s nodes, herniations, calcifications, frontal dissymmetry, loss of disc height, discographic tears or ligamentous ossification were recorded as anomalies. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION – Dual-energy reconstructions were completed on 10 intervertebral discs, in order to separate bone and soft tissue contributions ; the average atomic number of disc space could be extracted. The resulting quantitative chemical information and contrast-enhanced images allowed a better characterization of disc features and abnormalities, especially anterior and posterior outlines, density variations within the disc space, as well as some herniations when present ; MRI was used to validate the findings. Fused anterior osteophytes lead to an overall loss of mobility ; internal calcifications reduced the ROM in torsion only. IVDs with severe annular tears, as revealed by discograms, exhibited larger ROMs as well as higher compressive hysteresis and strains than discs with few tears. Dehydrated discs, characterized by a loss of signal in MRI, showed weakened viscoelastic properties in creep. CONCLUSION – Dual-energy detected outlines and anomalies indistinguishable in plain radiographs. Coupled to MRI and discography, it revealed some of the multi-factorial aspects involved in the mechanical behaviour of the IVD.

 

 

Merci d’adresser votre proposition de communication au secrétariat scientifique :

Docteur Emmanuel FAVREUL – Clinique Saint Charles - 25 rue des Flesselles -

69001 LYON

Tél : 04.72.10.26.36 – Fax 04.72.10.26.93 – e.mail : emmanuel.favreul@wanadoo.fr

 

GIEDA sur Internet : http://www.gieda.net