MRI Evaluation Of Percutaneous Vertebroplasty For Spinal Metastases

Objective: The main purpose of this article is to determine whether MRI findings canprovide reliable and objective evaluation of percutaneous vertebroplasty (PVP) in treatingspinal metastases.Methods: PVP procedures were carried out in a total of36consecutive patientswith75vertebral metastases． The clinical data and the imaging materials wereretrospective analyzed．Visual analog scale (VAS) was determined before and after thetreatment. According to MRI findings on sagittal scans，the patients were divided into threegroups. Group A(complete remission group): the lesions completely disappeared for12weeks. Group B(partial remission group):the lesions developed ossification or the tumor’svolume decreased, no new metastases appeared,and the condition maintained for12consecutive weeks. Group C(unresponsive group): the tumor’s volume became larger．Byusing independent-samples t-test and paired-samples t-test analysis， the preoperative andpostoperative VAS values were compared among three groups．Results: Before PVP no significant differences in VAS existed among threegroups(P>0.05). After PVP the differences in VAS among the three groups werestatistically significant （P <0.05）. The extent of pain relief in group C was not veryobvious, while the degree of pain relief in group A was more prominent than that in groupB（P <0．05）,indicating that objective MRI findings were in accordance with the patient’ssubjective assessment.Conclusion: PVP is an effective treatment for spinal metastases. MRI results canprovide reliable and objective evaluation of the clinical effects of percutaneousvertebroplasty for spinal metastases.