Abstract
Introduction: We examined the factors that contribute to early improvement of symptoms after condoliase intradiscal injection therapy for lumbar disc herniation, including T2* values of the nucleus pulposus (NP) before the injection.
Methods: Consecutive 30 patients with lumber disc herniation were enrolled. The mean age was 58.2 years. Patients whose leg pain visual analog scale improved by >50% 1 week after treatment were defined the early improvement group, while those who exhibited improvement of <50% were defined the nonimprovement group.
Results: The disease duration tended to be shorter in the early improvement group and longer in the nonimprovement group (p = 0.08). Additionally, pretreatment T2* values of the NP were higher, and the T2* value changes before and after the treatment were larger in the early improvement group (p < 0.05). In the receiver operating characteristic analysis, the cutoff value for pretreatment intervertebral disc T2* values was 31.42 ms (sensitivity: 77.8%, specificity: 81.0%).
Conclusions: T2* value of the NP may be used as an index when deciding on intradiscal enzyme injection therapy for lumbar disc herniation.
