Evidence map›Paper›PMID 36773077›Full record

ArticleEuropean spine journal : official publication of the European Spine Society, the European Spinal Deformity Society, and the European Section of the Cervical Spine Research Society2023

The association between vertebral endplate defects, subchondral bone marrow changes, and lumbar intervertebral disc degeneration: a retrospective, 3-year longitudinal study.

Manuel Moser, Dominik Adl Amini, Leonardo Albertini Sanchez, Lisa Oezel, Henryk Haffer, Maximilian Muellner, Jiaqi Zhu, John A Carrino, Jennifer Shue, Andrew A Sama and 3 more

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In one paragraph

Article in 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. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 6 papers.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
6citing papers in PubMed
2.8field-weighted citation impact, top 10% 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

6 citing papers in PubMed, 11 citations in OpenAlex.

  1. ISSLS Prize in Clinical Science 2026: Data-driven classification of lumbar spine degeneration trajectories in chronic low back pain.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 · 2026
    Article
  2. Article
  3. Article
  4. A comparison of approaches to studying relationships between lumbar spinal degeneration findings demonstrates advantages to interspace-level analyses over person-level analyses.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 · 2025
    Article
  5. Review
  6. Article
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 1 institution in 2 countries.

Manuel MoserSpine Care Institute, Hospital for Special Surgery, Weill Cornell Medicine, 535 East 70th Street, New York, NY, 10021, USA.
Dominik Adl AminiSpine Care Institute, Hospital for Special Surgery, Weill Cornell Medicine, 535 East 70th Street, New York, NY, 10021, USA.
Leonardo Albertini SanchezSpine Care Institute, Hospital for Special Surgery, Weill Cornell Medicine, 535 East 70th Street, New York, NY, 10021, USA.
Lisa OezelSpine Care Institute, Hospital for Special Surgery, Weill Cornell Medicine, 535 East 70th Street, New York, NY, 10021, USA.
Henryk HafferSpine Care Institute, Hospital for Special Surgery, Weill Cornell Medicine, 535 East 70th Street, New York, NY, 10021, USA.
Maximilian MuellnerSpine Care Institute, Hospital for Special Surgery, Weill Cornell Medicine, 535 East 70th Street, New York, NY, 10021, USA.
Jiaqi ZhuSpine Care Institute, Hospital for Special Surgery, Weill Cornell Medicine, 535 East 70th Street, New York, NY, 10021, USA.
John A CarrinoDepartment of Radiology and Imaging, Hospital for Special Surgery, Weill Cornell Medicine, 535 East 70th Street, New York, NY, 10021, USA.
Jennifer ShueSpine Care Institute, Hospital for Special Surgery, Weill Cornell Medicine, 535 East 70th Street, New York, NY, 10021, USA.
Andrew A SamaSpine Care Institute, Hospital for Special Surgery, Weill Cornell Medicine, 535 East 70th Street, New York, NY, 10021, USA.
Frank P CammisaSpine Care Institute, Hospital for Special Surgery, Weill Cornell Medicine, 535 East 70th Street, New York, NY, 10021, USA.
Federico P GirardiSpine Care Institute, Hospital for Special Surgery, Weill Cornell Medicine, 535 East 70th Street, New York, NY, 10021, USA.
Alexander P HughesSpine Care Institute, Hospital for Special Surgery, Weill Cornell Medicine, 535 East 70th Street, New York, NY, 10021, USA. hughesa@hss.edu.ORCID 0000-0001-7293-9672
Hospital for Special Surgery · US

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

purposeTo investigate the influence of vertebral endplate defects and subchondral bone marrow changes on the development of lumbar intervertebral disc degeneration (DD).

methodsPatients > 18 y/o without any history of lumbar fusion who had repeat lumbar magnetic resonance imaging scans primarily for low back pain (LBP) performed at a minimum of 3 years apart at a single institution, and no spinal surgery in between scans were included. Total endplate score (TEPS), Modic changes (MC), and Pfirrmann grading (PFG) per lumbar disc level were assessed. DD was defined as PFG ≥ 4.

resultsThree hundred and fifty-three patients (54.4% female) were included in the final analysis, comprising 1765 lumbar intervertebral discs. The patient population was 85.6% Caucasian with a median age of 60.1 years and a body mass index (BMI) of 25.8 kg/m

conclusionOur results suggest that TEPS does not unequivocally predict intervertebral DD in patients with LBP, since higher degrees of endplate defects might also develop secondarily to DD, and MC tend to occur late in the cascade of degeneration.

Indexed as

Intervertebral DiscIntervertebral Disc DegenerationLow Back PainBone MarrowFemaleHumansLongitudinal StudiesLumbar VertebraeMagnetic Resonance ImagingMaleMiddle AgedRetrospective StudiesDegenerative disc diseaseDisc degenerationEndplate scoreLongitudinalTEPS

Identifiers

PMID36773077
OpenAlexW4320033018

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.