Measurement of lumbar zygapophyseal joints by using spiral CT and its clinical value / 实用放射学杂志

ABSTRACT

Objective To study the angle and articular facet curvature of lumbar zygapophyseal joints in adults.Methods The lumbar zygapophyseal joints in 120 healthy subjects without lumbar diseases were detected using spiral CT and mutiple planner re-construction.The angle and articular facet curvature of zygapophyseal joints were measured.The differences in the measured param-eters between male and female or different age groups were compared.Results ①There were no significant differences in the angle of the same lumbar zygapophyseal joints between males and females or different age groups (P >0.05);however,the significant differences in the angle between different lumbar segments were found (P 0.05);however, there were significant differences in the curvature between different lumbar segments (P <0.05).The maximum articular facet cur-vature of L3-L4 was 22.1°±6.0°.Conclusion The angle and articular facet curvature of lumbar zygapophyseal joints varies from different lumbar segments with different contributions for the lumbar stability.