Evidence map›Paper›PMID 24190653›Full record

ArticleNeuroradiology2014

Disc degeneration and chronic low back pain: an association which becomes nonsignificant when endplate changes and disc contour are taken into account.

Francisco M Kovacs, Estanislao Arana, Ana Royuela, Ana Estremera, Guillermo Amengual, Beatriz Asenjo, Helena Sarasíbar, Isabel Galarraga, Ana Alonso, Carlos Casillas and 3 more

Abstract readMulticenter Study
PubMed Publisher
In one paragraph

Article in Neuroradiology, 2014. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 16 papers, 3 of them syntheses that pooled it.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
16citing papers in PubMed, 3 pooled it
2.3field-weighted citation impact, top 13% of its field
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

16 citing papers in PubMed, 3 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 33 citations in OpenAlex.

  1. Pooled it
  2. Pooled it
  3. Pooled it
  4. Differential patient responses to spinal manipulative therapy and their relation to spinal degeneration and post-treatment changes in disc diffusion.European spine journal : official publication of the European Spine Society, the European Spinal Deformity Society, and the European Section of the Cervical Spine Research Society · 2019
    Trial
  5. Article
  6. Article
  7. MRI image features with an evident relation to low back pain: a narrative review.European spine journal : official publication of the European Spine Society, the European Spinal Deformity Society, and the European Section of the Cervical Spine Research Society · 2023
    Review
  8. Article
  9. Imaging features of the aging spine.Polish journal of radiology · 2021
    Review
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  11. Review
  12. Article
  13. Article
  14. Article
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  16. Review
4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

13 authors at 8 institutions in 1 country.

Francisco M KovacsDepartamento Científico, Fundación Kovacs, Paseo de Mallorca 36, 07012, Palma de Mallorca, Spain.
Estanislao Arana
Ana Royuela
Ana Estremera
Guillermo Amengual
Beatriz Asenjo
Helena Sarasíbar
Isabel Galarraga
Ana Alonso
Carlos Casillas
Alfonso Muriel
Carmen Martínez
Víctor Abraira
Clínica Rementería · ESHospital Son Llatzer · ESFundación Kovacs · ESFundación Hospital Manacor · ESFundación Instituto Valenciano de Oncología · ESHospital Doctor José Molina Orosa · ESHospital Universitario Fundación Jiménez Díaz · ESInstituto de Tecnología Cerámica · ES

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

introductionThe objective of this study was to assess the association between severe disc degeneration (DD) and low back pain (LBP).

methodsA case-control study was conducted with 304 subjects, aged 35-50, recruited in routine clinical practice across six hospitals; 240 cases (chronic LBP patients with a median pain duration of 46 months) and 64 controls (asymptomatic subjects without any lifetime history of significant LBP). The following variables were assessed once, using previously validated methods: gender, age, body mass index (BMI), lifetime smoking exposure, degree of physical activity, severity of LBP, disability, and findings on magnetic resonance (MRI) (disc degeneration, Modic changes (MC), disc protrusion/hernia, annular tears, spinal stenosis, and spondylolisthesis). Radiologists who interpreted MRI were blinded to the subjects' characteristics. A multivariate logistic regression model assessed the association between severe DD and chronic LBP, adjusting for gender, age, BMI, physical activity, MC, disc protrusion/hernia, and spinal stenosis.

resultsSevere DD at ≥1 level was found in 46.9 % of the controls and 65.8 % of the cases. Crude odds ratio (95 % CI), for suffering chronic LBP when having severe DD, was 2.06 (1.05; 4.06). After adjusting for "MC" and "disc protrusion/hernia," it was 1.81 (0.81; 4.05).

conclusionsThe association between severe DD and LBP ceases to be significant when adjusted for MC and disc protrusion/hernia. These results do not support that DD as a major cause of chronic LBP.

Indexed as

Activities of Daily LivingAdultAge DistributionCase-Control StudiesCausalityChronic PainComorbidityFemaleHumansIncidenceIntervertebral Disc DegenerationLow Back PainMagnetic Resonance ImagingMaleMiddle AgedReproducibility of Results

Identifiers

PMID24190653
OpenAlexW2053419426

What OpenQuestion holds

Textmetadata
Read underepoch 390

Registered trials

None linked

Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.