Abstract:

 Objective　To examine the shape changes of the end plates in patients suffered from the lower back pain, and investigate the correlation between end plate and disc degeneration.  Methods 　Retrospective review was underwent in this study. The charts, operative reports, preoperative lateral plain radiographs, and MRI scans of 84 patients were reviewed and analyzed respectively. End plate shapes was determined on midsagittal MRI cuts, disc degeneration was graded on T2 sequences, and disc height was measured on lateral plain radiographs from L2 to S1 in all patients. Student t-test was used to detect significant differences and associations.   Results　For degenerative disc disease (DDD) patients, flat endplates were the most common shape in the lower lumbar spine. In addition, the concaved and irregular endplates could be found. The height of degenerated discs related with the shapes of endplate, viz, the highest of concaved endplate, and the lowest of irregular ones, and there was no difference between that of flat and irregular endplates.   Conclusions　The sagittal profile of end plates in the lumbar spine was described for patients with DDD. For those patients, most of severely degenerated disc present concave, flat or irregular endplates. the intervertebral space of flat and irregular discs are depressed obviously, which is helpful for direct the prosthetic disc nucleus-pulposus (PDN) replacement surgery.

Key words: MRI!End plate shape!Degenerative disc disease(DDD)