The diagnosis of tight filum terminale

Abstract

Patients may complain of accusing persistent low back pain and leg pain even though imaging such as MRI does not reveal any abnormality. It has been reported that tight filum terminale (TFT) which is tethering of the spinal cord by stiff or TFT is one cause of such a low back pain. We evaluated a TFT provocation test in this study. The TFT provocation test yielded a positive rate of 96.4% in both a standing and sitting position in TFT patients. Regarding lumbar disc herniation, 33.3% showed positive results in a standing position and 3.3% in a sitting position. In lumbar canal stenos, positive results were abtained in 2.4% in a standing position and 0% in a sitting position. Aomng normal volunteers, positive results were obtained in a standing position in 0.8% of cases, but 0% in a sitting position. These results suggest that the TFT provocation test is useful in the diagnosis of TFT.