Relationship between low back pain, disability, MR imaging findings and health care provider.

OBJECTIVE: To determine the association between the self-report of pain and disability and findings on lumbar MR images, and to compare two different health care providers in Spanish patients with low back pain (LBP). DESIGN: Cross-sectional MATERIAL AND METHODS: A total of 278 patients, 137 men and 141 women aged 44+/-14 years submitted with low back pain (LBP) were studied. One hundred and nine patients were from the National Health System (NHS) and 169 from private practice. Patients with previous discitis, surgery, neoplasm or traumatic episodes were excluded. Every patient completed a disability questionnaire with six core items, providing a score of disability from 2 to 28. All patients had sagittal spin-echo T1 and turbo spin-echo T2, axial proton-density and MR myelography weighted images. MR images of the two most affected disc levels were read, offering an MR imaging score from 0 to 30. RESULTS: Patients with a combination of LBP and sciatica showed the highest levels of disability (p=0.002). MR imaging scores only correlated with pain interference with normal work (p=0.04), but not with other disability questions. Patients from the NHS showed greater disability scores than private ones (p=0.001) and higher MR imaging scores (p=0.01). CONCLUSION: In patients with LBP, MR imaging only correlates with pain interference with work but not with other disability questions. Differences are found between private and NHS patients, the latter being more physically affected.

Relationship between Northwick Park neck pain questionnaire and cervical spine MR imaging findings.

The study was aimed at determining the association between the self-report of pain and disability by means of Northwick neck pain questionnaire (NPQ) and cervical spine MR imaging findings. A random sample of 251 patients, 132 men and 119 women aged 43+/-13 years, submitted with neck pain were investigated. Patients with previous discitis, surgery, neoplasm or hospitalized for cervical spine trauma were excluded. All patients completed the NPQ and were studied with sagittal gradient-echo T1 and turbo spin-echo T2, axial gradient-echo T2* and heavily T2 weighted MR myelographic weighted images. MR images of the two most affected disc levels were read, offering an MR imaging score from 0 to 30. There was no statistically significant correlation between NPQ and MR imaging scores. From the NPQ items, only difficulty in sleeping and numbness were related to the MR imaging score. Disc extrusion was the only MR finding almost significantly associated with NPQ (P=0.054). Neck injury did not increase NPQ scores. In patients with neck pain, NPQ scores do not correlate with MR imaging findings. NPQ and cervical spine MR imaging show different facets of the multidimensional complex of neck pain.