Quantitative Evaluation Of Proteoglycan And Collagen In The Lumbar Disc With Diffusion Weighted ADC Value: Experimental Study

Objective: To study the value of diffusion-weighted imaging ADCvalues for quantitative evaluation of collagen and proteoglycan in lumbardisc.Materials and methods: The ADC value of lumbar dicc in patients withlumbar disc herniation was measured with diffusion-weighted Imaging beforeoperation. The content of collagen and proteoglycan of surgical removalnucleus pulposus were assessed. Degenerative disc were categorized withMinna tertti’s method. The difference of collagen, proteoglycan and averageADC value for various degenerative lumbar discs were assessed. Thecorrelations of the content of collagen and proteoglycan with ADC in discdegeneration were analyzed.Result: 15 surgical removal specimen of lumbar disc prolapse wereobtained in 13 patients with lumbar disc herniation. There are 7 gradeⅡand8 gradeⅢdegenerative lumbar disc. The mean ADC values of gradeⅡandⅢof lumbar intervertebral disc were （1.54±0.36）×10^-3mm²/s, （0.98±0.42）×10-3mm²/s, respectively，P﹤0.05. The average proteins polysaccharides ofgradeⅡa ndⅢwere 34.57±1.89mg/g, 32.23±5.76 mg/g, respectively, P﹥0. 05. The average collagen protein content of gradeⅡa ndⅢwas208. 6±90.86 mg/g, 219.69±88.96mg/g, respectively，P﹥0.05. The correlationcoefficient（r） between ADC value and proteoglycan and collagen protein ingradeⅡlumbar intervertebral disc was 0.826, -0.882, respectively，P﹤0.05.The correlation coefficient r between ADC and proteoglycan and collagen in gradeⅢlumbar intervertebral disc were 0.210,-0.180, respectively，P﹥0.05.Conclusions: ADC values can be used for evaluating the degree oflumbar disc degeneration. ADC values can be evaluted indirectly the contentof polysaccharides and collagen protein in lumbar disc.