Age Related Changes in Height and Shape of the Lumbar İntervertebral Discus

Abstract

There was no agreement on intervertebral disc changes by age in human lumbar spine in the previous studies. The present study aimed the re-examination of the possible changes in intervertebral lumbar discs by age in healthy subjects. Normal lumbar spine magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scans were obtained from 171 individuals (84 men, 87 women; 12-80 years old). The anterior and posterior heights and the depths of the intervertebral discs at each level of the lumbar spine were measured. The gender and age-related changes were not significant for heights. The depths of the intervertebral discs changed with age significantly in both sexes. The average disc height and shape index increased with age significantly in some disks individually. The disk depths showed only gender difference. The present study did not find clear increases in all dimensions and the shape of the discs of both sexes with age and differed from the previous studies. Our findings needed to be confirmed by the further MRI studies.