Quantitave MR Characterization of the Discovertebral Complex in Low Back Pain
Research group information
Unit and faculty
Contact information
Research group leader
- ProfessorOsmo Tervonen
Research group description
Low back pain (LBP) is related to a chronic degenerative spine disease (CDSD) with significant impact on the individual, society and economy. In 2010, degeneration of lumbar spine, manifesting as low back pain, was the most disabling disease in the UK. Importantly, the prevalence of CDSD increases with age, which is bound to increase costs for the society due to prolonged life expectancy.
The failure to develop adequate treatments for CDSD is due to the complicated nature and incomplete understanding of pathogenesis, the lack of sensitive and specific biomarkers to detect early degenerative changes and inability to monitor response to new treatment strategies.
The research group has previously characterized structural changes in the discovertebral complex by using modern imaging methods as well as developed new more effective treatment methods for low back pain. These include MR diffusion and perfusion and other quantitative MR methods combined with functional (molecular) imaging.
The research group is a member of the OASIS research consortium.
The research program aims to provide a significant contribution to the understanding of CDSD pathogenesis, the early diagnosis of the disease and for alternative treatments of the disease. This is utilized by using various imaging approaches to study the CDSD in vivo quantitative MRI techniques, development of novel quantitative signal and image analysis methods will enable extraction of information on structure and composition of discovertebral tissues.