Fig 1.
Flow diagram of the study.
Fig 2.
The evolution of disc changes throughout the study period in one study participant.
The MRI images illustrate the visual assessment of the signal intensity (SI) of the intervertebral disc using the Schneiderman classification. At Y8, all lumbar discs presented with a Bright nucleus pulposus (a). At Y12, the L4/L5 disc was graded Speckled (b), and at Y19, both L4/L5 and L5/S1 discs were graded Dark (c).
Table 1.
Description of study participants.
Table 2.
Association of the visual assessment of the most degenerated disc to self-reported LBP.
Fig 3.
Computerized measurement of the disc signal intensity (SI) to cerebrospinal fluid SI–ratio at 8, 12, and 19 years in subjects with or without LBP.
Means with whiskers representing 95 per cent confidence intervals.
Table 3.
The Spearman correlation between BMI and Disc to CSF -SI ratio.