ArticleEuropean spine journal : official publication of the European Spine Society, the European Spinal Deformity Society, and the European Section of the Cervical Spine Research Society2025
Effective disc age: a statistical model for age-dependent and level-specific lumbar disc degeneration using magnetic resonance imaging (MRI).
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, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 5 papers.
What it found
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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
5 citing papers in PubMed.
- Biomechanical, Structural, and Composition Characterization of the Vertebra-Disc Interface.JOR spine · 2026Article
- Human In Vivo Disc Mechanics in Flexion, Extension, and Diurnal Loading With Aging and Degeneration.JOR spine · 2026Article
- Age-referenced modeling of lumbar disc degeneration and its association with chronic low back pain: an MRI-based cross-sectional study.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 · 2026Article
- Intervertebral disc degeneration.Nature reviews. Disease primers · 2026Review
- Advances in mechanical assessments of in vivo human lumbar spine tissues with noninvasive imaging techniques.npj biomedical innovations · 2026Review
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
6 authors.
Funding
Abstract
purposeIntervertebral disc degeneration progresses with normal aging; yet common disc grading schemes do not account for age. Degeneration progression also varies between spine levels and is similarly not accounted for by current grading schemes. These limitations inhibit differentiation between discs with normal and expected aging (non-pathological) and discs with accelerated degeneration (which may be pathological). We sought to develop a statistical model to quantify normal age and spine level dependent disc degeneration.
methodsEighty-four asymptomatic adult subjects ranging evenly from 18 to 83 years old underwent magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) of the lumbar spine. Subject traits, MRI-derived disc geometry, and MRI biomarkers of T2 relaxation time were evaluated and used to develop a statistical model to predict effective disc age, the age at which normal aging would produce a disc's observed phenotype.
resultsAfter evaluating several models, a 4-predictor model utilizing 1) subject height, 2) nucleus pulposus T2 relaxation time, 3) disc mid-sagittal area and 4) disc 3D volume, optimally estimated effective disc age. The effective age closely tracked true age for spine levels L1-L5 (R
conclusionWe offer a data-driven, quantitative tool to quantify normal, expected intervertebral disc aging. This effective age model allows future research to target discs with accelerated degeneration.
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Registered trials
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