Keywords:
Neuroradiology spine, Anatomy, Musculoskeletal bone, MR, Normal variants, Congenital
Authors:
A. Al-Taie, V. Mathew, S. Vattoth; Doha/QA
DOI:
10.26044/ecr2019/C-3013
Conclusion
Piriformis and psoas major muscle topmost attachments,
iliac crest level and ilio-lumbar ligament attachment had significant overlap between normal control and transitional LSV case group,
using the gold standard of enumeration from C2 downwards.
These cannot be used to definitely determine if a transitional LSV existed for sure when only lumbosacral spine imaging is available,
and hence were not proven to be reliable for spine enumeration neither as a single parameter nor in combination.
However,
in the case group these parameters were at distinctly higher levels in Sacralization and lower levels in Lumbarization,
with minimal overlap.
Hence,
these could be used to differentiate between the types of transitional LSV where it is presumed to exist.
We propose that if only LS spine imaging is available,
the radiological report should say that "there appears to be a transitional LSV (impossible to be definite without counting from C2 downwards),
which based on the above parameters is counted as Sacralized L5 (or Lumbarized S1) in this report".