Quantitative evaluation of lumbar disc herniation based on MRI image

Abstract

Lumbar disk herniation (LDH) is a common cause of low back pain in the world. Clinical studies have indicated that morphological characteristics of lumbar discs and signal intensity of patient's MRI image have close relationship with clinical outcome. In this paper, a visualization and quantitative analysis framework for LDH was developed. Based on the framework, six indexes, such as the distribution of the protruded disc, the ratio between the protruded part and the dural sac, relative signal intensity and etc, were extracted from patient MRI images and evaluated. Preliminary results indicate that there is a close relationship between these indexes and the grading of LDH. © 2012 Springer-Verlag.