Relationship between lumbar spinal stenosis and inflammatory factors in the vein serum of lumbar spinal canal / 中国组织工程研究

ABSTRACT

BACKGROUND:Numerous studies have shown that local lumbar stenosis can cause immunological abnormalities and local chronic inflammation, which is the main cause of pain. At present, studies on inflammatory factors and lumbar spinal stenosis mainly focused on intervertebral discs, facet joint and ligamenta flava. No reports addressed the relationship between inflammatory factor in vein of lumbar spinal canal and lumbar spinal stenosis. OBJECTIVE:To analyze the correlation of serum interleukin-1αand tumor necrosis factor-αlevels with lumbar spinal stenosis. METHODS:A total of 51 patients with lumbar spinal stenosis or lumbar vertebral burst fracture, who underwent posterior lumbar decompression in the Department of Spine Surgery, Shanghai East Hospital, Tongji University in China from September 2011 to December 2013, were enrol ed in this study. Visual analogue scale score of low back pain and Oswestry disability index were evaluated before treatment. Peripheral vein blood and venous blood in the vertebral canal were col ected from patients with lumbar spinal stenosis or lumbar vertebral burst fracture. The concentrations of serum interleukin-1αand tumor necrosis factor-αwere determined using enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay. RESULTS AND CONCLUSION:The concentration of interleukin-1αin degenerative lumbar stenosis group was significantly higher than that in the lumbar burst fracture group and peripheral veins (P<0.05). The more segments of lumbar spinal stenosis, the higher the venous serum interleukin-1αlevels were in the degenerative lumbar stenosis group, but the statistical difference was not significant. Linear correlation analysis results displayed that interleukin-1αlevels were positively associated with low back pain and disability scores in the degenerative lumbar stenosis group (r2=0.359 3, P<0.05;r2=0.526 4, P<0.05). These results indicated that the lumbar spinal venous inflammatory factors may be one of the reasons of low back pain and dysfunction in patients with degenerative lumbar spinal stenosis.