Matthew Fenty1, Walter RT Witschey 2nd1,2, Haris Mohammad1, Philip Maurer3, Ravinder Reddy1, Dawn Elliott4, Arijitt Borthakur1
1Radiology, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Pa, USA; 2Graduate Group in Biochemistry and Molecular Biophysics, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Pa, USA; 3Booth, Bartolozzi, Balderston - 3B Orthopaedics, P.C., Philadelphia, Pa, USA; 4McKay Orthopaedic Research Laboratory, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Pa, USA
We correlate discography opening pressure with T1ρ relaxation values within the nucleus pulposus in the inter-vertebral disc. Preliminary data demonstrates an increasing linear trend with opening pressure to mean disc T1ρ values with an R2 of 0.70. Additionally, we find a decreasing linear relationship comparing Pfirrman Grade from T2 imaging with T1ρ values with an R2 of 0.61 which is similar to previously reported findings.