Keywords:
Neuroradiology spine, Musculoskeletal spine, Interventional non-vascular, MR, Imaging sequences, Treatment effects
Authors:
F. Bruno, P. Palumbo, M. V. M. Micelli, A. Izzo, M. Varrassi, A. Splendiani, C. Masciocchi; L'Aquila/IT
DOI:
10.26044/ecr2019/C-3112
Aims and objectives
Intervertebral disc degeneration and disc herniation are considered to be the main causes of low back pain.
Percutaneous CT guided ozone (O2-O3) chemiodiscolysis is a well-estabilished minimally invasive interventional technique for the treatment of lumbar disc herniation.
The biological effect of the ozone on discoradicular pain relies on several pathways,
the most important being the reduction of disc volume acting directly on the nucleus pulposus,
because it breaks the glycosaminoglycan chains and prevents water retention,
resulting in dehydration of the disc.
Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) is the most commonly used imaging tool to asses intervertebral disc pathology in the clinical setting.
T2 relaxation time is an intrinsic MR property of tissues,
reflecting the molecular matrix and especially the water content; in the spine was demonstrated that T2 relaxation time is correlated with both the proteoglycan and water content of the intervertebral disc.
The purpose of our study was to evaluate the validity of T2 mapping sequences for the pre- and post-treatment evaluation in patients with lumbar disc herniation undergoing O2-O3 chemiodiscolysis.