The Relationship Between Modic Changes And Pfirrman Assessment In Evaluation Of Lumbar Degenerative Disease

[Abstract] Objective To study the relationship between Modic changes and Pfirrman assessment in evaluation of lumbar degenerative diseases. Method From January2009to December2011,108cases who had the lumbar degenerative disease were treated by operation. The preoperative MRI was performed to evaluate the Modic type, Pfirrman grading assessment and improved Pfirrman grading assessment and analyze the relationship between Modic changes of lumber degeneration disease and disc degeneration. Result Among108cases,44cases were without Modic changes, Pfirrman grades were3.77±0.480, improved Pfirrman grades were of5.81±1.006;27cases were Modic I type, Pfirrman grades were4.79±0.557, improved Pfirrman grades were7.00±0.832;36cases were Modic type Ⅱ, Pfirrman grades were4.11±0.398, improved Pfirrman grades were6.64±0.867; Only1case was Modic Ⅲ type change without performing statistic analysis. Statistic results showed that Pfirrman grades and improved Pfirrman grades were the significant difference between Modic I type group and no change group, between Modic Ⅱ type group and no change group (P<0.01), but there were not significant difference between Modic Ⅰ type group and Modic Ⅱ type group (P>0.05). The results of regression analysis showed that Modic changes were the most relevant factor with disc degeneration. Conclusion In lumbar degenerative disease, there were clear link between the Modic changes and disc degeneration according to Pfirrman grading assesment.