Observational studyScientific reports2021
Intradiscal quantitative chemical exchange saturation transfer MRI signal correlates with discogenic pain in human patients.
Observational study in Scientific reports, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 10 papers.
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.
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.
Who cites it
10 citing papers in PubMed.
- Article
- Article
- Diagnostic Features of Discogenic Low Back Pain: A Narrative Review and Suggested Areas for Future Research and Clinical Practice.JOR spine · 2026Review
- CEST MRI: Translational prospects for intervertebral disc degeneration - from basic research to clinical applications.Journal of orthopaedic translation · 2026Review
- What a pain in the back: etiology, diagnosis and future treatment directions for discogenic low back pain.Bone research · 2025Review
- Lifestyle and Clinical Predictors of Glial Cell Line-Derived Neurotrophic Factor Expression in Lumbosacral Stenosis-Related Ligamentum Flavum Degeneration.Biomedicines · 2025Article
- Discogenic Low Back Pain: Anatomic and Pathophysiologic Characterization, Clinical Evaluation, Biomarkers, AI, and Treatment Options.Journal of clinical medicine · 2024Review
- Controversies in spine research: Organ culture versus in vivo models for studies of the intervertebral disc.JOR spine · 2022Review
- Imaging Evaluation of Intervertebral Disc Degeneration and Painful Discs-Advances and Challenges in Quantitative MRI.Diagnostics (Basel, Switzerland) · 2022Review
- Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
20 authors.
Funding
Abstract
Low back pain (LBP) is often a result of a degenerative process in the intervertebral disc. The precise origin of discogenic pain is diagnosed by the invasive procedure of provocative discography (PD). Previously, we developed quantitative chemical exchange saturation transfer (qCEST) magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) to detect pH as a biomarker for discogenic pain. Based on these findings we initiated a clinical study with the goal to evaluate the correlation between qCEST values and PD results in LBP patients. Twenty five volunteers with chronic low back pain were subjected to T2-weighted (T2w) and qCEST MRI scans followed by PD. A total of 72 discs were analyzed. The average qCEST signal value of painful discs was significantly higher than non-painful discs (p = 0.012). The ratio between qCEST and normalized T2w was found to be significantly higher in painful discs compared to non-painful discs (p = 0.0022). A receiver operating characteristics (ROC) analysis indicated that qCEST/T2w ratio could be used to differentiate between painful and non-painful discs with 78% sensitivity and 81% specificity. The results of the study suggest that qCEST could be used for the diagnosis of discogenic pain, in conjunction with the commonly used T2w scan.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
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.