Table 1.
Imaging parameters.
Figure 1.
For the representative intervertebral disc, regions of interest (ROIs) evaluation on the sagittal T2WI, an ellipse ROI was selected for the nucleus pulposus (NP).
Suitable ROIs for both the anterior and posterior annulus fibrosus (AF) were selected. Then these ROIs in T2WI were copied to the T2 map and T2 colored-map. T2 values were measured.
Table 2.
Degeneration grade according to Pfirrmann scale, sex, and disc level of the cervical intervertebral discs of healthy young adults analyzed in study.
Table 3.
Intraobserver and interobserver reliability of the Pfirrmann grade.
Figure 2.
Box plots of T2 value of both nucleus pulposus (NP) and annulus fibrosus (AF) according to the anatomic level of each disc.
The boxes represent the median and the interquartile range, with the vertical lines showing the range. *P<0.000.
Figure 3.
Box plots of T2 value of nucleus pulposus (NP) by sex according to the anatomic level of each disc.
White: Male; Black: Female. The boxes represent the median and the interquartile range, with the vertical lines showing the range.
Table 4.
T2 values of male and female on nucleus pulposus and annulus fibrosus according to the anatomic level of each disc expressed as median and interquartile range.
Figure 4.
Box plots of T2 value of nucleus pulposus (NP) according to the grade of Pfirrmann.
The boxes represent the median and the interquartile range, with the vertical lines showing the range. Three case with Pfirrmann grade IV (T2 value = 36.72) was excluded. *P<0.000.
Table 5.
T2 values for discs at different Pfirrmann grades.
Figure 5.
Receiver-operating characteristic (ROC) curve between each grade in the NP and cut-off value.
The most accurate point was obtained from the ROC curve as the cut-off value. A. The T2 cut-off value between grades I and II was found to be 62.03 ms, sensitivity 83.80%, specificity 64.40%, and Area Under curve (AUC) 0.785, separately. B. The values between grades II and III were 54.60 ms, 66.80%, 71.18%, and 0.722, separately.