Radiologic study of the correlation between Modic lumbar endplate degeneration and lumbar intervertebral disc degeneration in patients with low back pain

Objective: To discuss the correlation between Modic degeneration of lumbar endplate on MRI and degeneration of lumbar intervertebral disc in low back pain. Methods: The routine X-ray and MRI were performed in 90 patients with 270 lumbar discs. The lumbar endplate changes were divided into 0～3 grades by Modic classification and the degeneration of vertebral discs were divided into Ⅰ～Ⅴ grades by Pearce classification system. All the data were analyzed by SPSS 11.5 for the correlations. Results: There was significant correlation(Pearson R=0.452, P=0.000), between the Modic degeneration of lumbar endplate and the degeneration of lumbar discs in 90 patients. Conclusion: There is positive correlation between Modic degeneration of lumbar endplate and the degeneration of lumbar intervertebral disc. It suggests Modic degeneration of lumbar endplate and the degeneration of lumbar intervertebral disc might be the cause and effect of each other. Both of them might be the causes of low back pain.