Association Between Clinical Signs and MRI Findings of the Lumbar Facet Joints

Completed

• Conditions: Low Back Pain; Facet Joint Pain
• Interventions: Other: MRI of the lumbar spine; Other: manual segmental examination of the lumbar facet joints

• Registration Number: NCT01628939
• Lead Sponsor: Christoph Maier, Prof. Dr.

Brief Summary

The purpose of this study is to determine

1. the prevalence of lumbar facet joint pain detected by manual segmental provocation tests

2. the prevalence of MRI findings of the lumbar facet joints (hypertrophy, effusion, edema)

3. the association of lumbar facet joint pain and MRI findings on a segmental level

in subjects with current low back pain and in a control group.

Detailed Description

Not available

Study Timeline

• Study Start: 2009-06
• Primary Completion: 2009-11
• Study Completion: 2009-11
• Status Verified: 2012-06
• Study First Submitted: 2012-06-17
• Study First Submitted QC: 2012-06-24
• Last Update Submitted: 2012-06-24
• Study First Posted: 2012-06-27
• Last Update Posted: 2012-06-27

Recruitment & Eligibility

• Status: COMPLETED
• Sex: All
• Target Recruitment: 150

Inclusion Criteria

Not provided

Exclusion Criteria

Not provided

Study & Design

• Study Type: OBSERVATIONAL
• Study Design: Not specified

Arm && Interventions

Group	Intervention	Description
current low back pain	MRI of the lumbar spine	subjects with current low back pain (i.e. more than 30 days of low back pain in the last three months)
current low back pain	manual segmental examination of the lumbar facet joints	subjects with current low back pain (i.e. more than 30 days of low back pain in the last three months)
controls	MRI of the lumbar spine	subjects with less than 30 days of low back pain in the last three months
controls	manual segmental examination of the lumbar facet joints	subjects with less than 30 days of low back pain in the last three months

Primary Outcome Measures

Name	Time	Method
Number of facet joints per person which show facet joint pain and FJ effusion and/ or edema	2 hours	association of facet joint pain and MRI facet joint findings is determined

Secondary Outcome Measures

Name	Time	Method
number of painful facet joints per person	2 hours	prevalence of facet joint pain assessed by manual segmental provocation tests
number of facet joints diagnosed with facet joint effusion and/ or edema per person	2 hours	prevalence of facet joint findings in the lumbar spine assessed by MRI (facet joint effusion and/ or facet joint edema)

Trial Locations

Locations (1)

Department of Pain Medicine, BG Universitätsklinikum Bergmannsheil GmbH; 🇩🇪 Bochum, NRW, Germany