Lumbar spine Schmorl's nodes; prevalence in adults with back pain, and their relation to vertebral endplate degeneration

• Main Author: Israa Mohammed Sadiq
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: SpringerOpen 2019-12-01
• Series: The Egyptian Journal of Radiology and Nuclear Medicine
• Subjects: Disc degeneration disease (DDD); Lumbar spine; Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI); Schmorl’s node (SN)
• Online Access: https://doi.org/10.1186/s43055-019-0069-9

Abstract Background In 1927, Schmorl described a focal herniation of disc material into the adjacent vertebral body through a defect in the endplate, named as Schmorl’s node (SN). The aim of the study is to reveal the prevalence and distribution of Schmorl’s nodes (SNs) in the lumbar spine and their relation to disc degeneration disease in Kirkuk city population. Results A cross-sectional analytic study was done for 324 adults (206 females and 118 males) with lower back pain evaluated as physician requests by lumbosacral MRI at the Azadi Teaching Hospital, Kirkuk city, Iraq. The demographic criteria of the study sample were 20–71 years old, 56–120 kg weight, and 150–181 cm height. SNs were seen in 72 patients (22%). Males were affected significantly more than the females (28.8% vs. 18.8%, P = 0.03). SNs were most significantly affecting older age groups. L1–L2 was the most affected disc level (23.6%) and the least was L5–S1 (8.3%). There was neither a significant relationship between SN and different disc degeneration scores (P = 0.76) nor with disc herniation (P = 0.62, OR = 1.4), but there was a significant relation (P = 0.00001, OR = 7.9) with MC. Conclusion SN is a frequent finding in adults’ lumbar spine MRI, especially in males; it is related to vertebral endplate bony pathology rather than discal pathology.