ABSTRACT

The increasing interest of endplate and Modic changes as potential pain generators in low back pain (LBP), along with advancement of functional quantitative magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) techniques, makes it important to characterize the vertebral dynamic behavior in detail. This study aims to perform characterization of the dynamic behavior of the vertebral bodies (VB) by investigating the VB diurnal variation in T2-relaxation time in a cross-sectional asymptomatic group of individuals.

T2-mapping of 30 VBs (L1-L5) in six healthy volunteers (mean age, 40 years; range, 29-65 years) was performed with a 1.5 Tesla MRI at three time points over the day (7 am, 12 am, 5 pm). Volumetric regions of interest were segmented manually to determine VB T2-relaxation time, which was compared between the three time points.

On a group level only small and not significant diurnal VB variation was detected (all P >.10), with median T2 (ms) (quartiles; Q1, Q3) at the three time points 88.7 (84.1, 99.1), 87.3 (85.0, 96.1) and 87.8 (84.4, 99.2). However, in some VBs up to 7% increase respectively 9% decrease in T2-relaxation time was found during the day. Further, there was a relatively large variation between the individuals in absolute VB T2-relaxation times (range 73.2-108.3 ms), but small differences between the VBs within an individual.

This first T2-mapping study of the VB signal dynamics, in repeated investigations during one day, display variation in T2-relaxation time in specific individual VBs but were negligible on a group level. The result may be of importance when evaluating patients with spinal pathologies and suggest further examinations of dynamic changes not only of the disc but also vertebrae.