Abstract

CLINICAL VALUE OF SEDIMENTATION SIGN IN DIAGNOSIS OF LUMBAR SPINAL STENOSIS

*Dr. Alaa Hussein Ali, Dr. Alaa Abdulhussein Salih Badi and Dr. Yahia Falih Mohammad

ABSTRACT

Introduction: Lumbar spinal canal stenosis is described as a condition in which there is diminished space available for the neural and vascular elements in the lumbar spine. This may be due to age, injury, or degeneration. Aim of the study: To evaluate the diagnostic accuracy, discriminative ability, and reliability of the Sedimentation Sign in a sample of patients with clinically diagnosed lumbar spinal stenosis. Type of the study: Cross-sectional prospective study. Patients and methods: Patients with low back pain referred to the orthopedic consultant clinic, after history taking and examination, patients who were diagnosed clinically to have lumbar spinal stenosis, referred for MRI of lumbosacral spine, looking for sedimentation sign and measuring anteroposterior dimeter of spinal canal and dural sac. Results: The results showed that 338 patients with low back pain,220 of them were diagnosed to have lumbar spinal stenosis(65.1%),210(95.5%) of patients who were diagnosed with lumbar spinal stenosis have sedimentation sign on MRI in our study, sedimentation sign had a specificity of 100% and sensitivity of 95.5%, p value is<0.001,so it is highly significant. Conclusion: The sedimentation sign was shown to have high reliability in the present study. It was helpful to diagnose lumbar spinal stenosis in patients with low back pain. The sign appears most sensitive in defining severe lumbar spinal stenosis cases, may add specific diagnostic information beyond the traditional history, physical examination and imaging studies that are standard in lumbar spinal stenosis diagnosis.

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