Correlation between disability and MRI findings in lumbar spinal stenosis

Figures & data

Table 1. MRI measurements by 3 observers (A, B, and C) of minimal dural sac area (mm²) in a randomly selected subset of 20 patients

A	B	C
40	47	38
17	58	32
42	30	40
18	29	26
35	23	29
31	38	30
17	40	33
66	55	48
38	38	30
55	36	35
30	48	32
43	53	70
56	46	61
15	36	25
54	50	47
44	34	32
62	45	58
22	43	37
82	68	76
65	78	77

Table 2. Patient demographics, EQ-5D, VAS leg and back, minimal dural sac area, and multilevel stenosis. Values are mean (SD)

	No. of patients	Age (years)	EQ-5D	SF-36 PF	SF-36 GH	SF-36 BP	SF-36 RP	ODI	VAS leg	VAS back	Min. area (mm^2)	Multilevel (no. of pts)
Sex
Women	56	73 (9)	0.35 (0.29)	26 (18)	60 (20)	27 (16)	11 (26)	46 (16)	69 (26)	53 (26)	40 (16)	30
Men	53	69 (11)	0.47 (0.28)	37 (22)	60 (20)	25 (14)	8 (15)	45 (14)	66 (21)	55 (26)	46 (18)	24
Total	109	71 (10)	0.41 (0.29)	31 (21)	60 (20)	26 (15)	10 (22)	46 (15)	68 (24)	54 (28)	43 (17)	56
Age group
0–49	2	40 (8)	0.79 (0.13)	53 (11)	75 (11)	36 (7)	25	38	72	41 (28)	64 (2)	1
50–59	14	56 (2)	0.17 (0.18)	29 (13)	65 (21)	21 (10)	18 (36)	51 (11)	72 (19)	48 (29)	47 (17)	7
60–69	21	65 (3)	0.45 (0.29)	39 (20)	65 (16)	26 (10)	0	44 (15)	64 (23)	48 (29)	44 (17)	8
70–79	53	75 (3)	0.44 (0.30)	30 (21)	56 (22)	28 (19)	9 (18)	45 (18)	67 (27)	60 (27)	42 (17)	29
80–89	19	83 (3)	0.39 (0.29)	23 (25)	61(15)	24 (13)	16 (32)	46 (10)	69 (21)	48 (28)	38 (16)	9
Preop walking distance, m
<100	51	72 (9)	0.31 (0.29)	27 (23)	62 (20)	26 (18)	10 (22)	50 (18)	67 (26)	55 (28)	44 (19)	23
100–499	39	71 (9)	0.42 (0.27)	34 (17)	60 (18)	25 (13)	10 (25)	43 (13)	68 (23)	50 (29)	41 (16)	23
500–999	12	65 (15)	0.66 (0.19)	40 (17)	60 (23)	31 (11)	10 (18)	39 (12)	69 (20)	59 (27)	59 (27)	6
>1000	3	73 (14)	0.70 (0.02)	43 (21)	63 (15)	31 (10)	0	39 (8)	72 (17)	61 (11)	45 (20)	0

EQ-5D: health-related quality of life EuroQol index; PF: physical functioning; GH: general health; BP: bodily pain; RP: role physical; ODI: Oswestry disability index; VAS: visual analogue scale.

Table 3. The relationship between minimal dural sac area and multilevel stenosis on the one hand and functional status, pain, and EQ-5D on the other

	Minimal area ^a		Multilevel spinal stenosis
	r	p-value	r	p-value
Walking distance	–0.01	0.9	–0.02	0.8
VAS leg	–0.05	0.6	–0.24	0.03
VAS low back	–0.07	0.5	–0.09	0.4
Oswestry disability index	0.03	0.8	–0.13	0.4
SF-36, bodily pain	–0.02	0.8	0.10	0.4
SF-36, physical functioning	–0.03	0.8	–0.14	0.2
SF-36, role physical	0.09	0.4	0.12	0.3
SF-36, general health	–0.11	0.3	0.08	0.5
EQ-5D	0.13	0.3	0.03	0.8

^a Correlation between minimal dural sac area and all variables, controlling for number of levels involved.

Table 4. Comparison of EQ-5D, functional status, and pain in patients with single and multilevel stenosis. Values are mean (SD)

	No. of patients	Age	Min. area mm^2	EQ-5D	SF-36 PF	SF-36 RP	SF-36 BP	SF-36 GH	ODI	VAS leg	VAS back	Walking distance
Single level	55	71 (10)	48 (17)	0.45 (0.30)	35 (25)	8 (19)	26 (14)	56 (20)	48 (14)	72 (21)	56 (25)	1.7 (0.9)
Multilevel	54	71 (10)	37 (14)	0.37 (0.28)	28 (15)	11 (24)	27 (16)	64 (20)	42 (16)	64 (26)	51 (31)	1.7 (0.7)
p-value		0.82	<0.001	0.22	0.13	0.56	0.73	0.04	0.12	0.13	0.40	0.87

Plot of leg pain against the number of stenotic levels.

Table 5. Age, minimal dural sac area, multilevel stenosis, and HRLQoL in patients with and without spondylolisthesis. Values are mean (SD)

Spondyl-olisthesis	No. of patients	Age	Min. area mm^2	Multilevel stenosis	EQ-5D	SF-36 PF	SF-36 RP	SF-36 BP	SF-36 GH	ODI	VAS leg	VAS back
Yes	35	75 (7)	38 (16)	1.8 (0.82)	0.41 (0.30)	25 (14)	11 (28)	28 (13)	60 (18)	44 (14)	68 (22)	52 (27)
No	74	69 (11)	49 (25)	1.4 (0.81)	0.39 (0.29)	33 (23)	9 (19)	25 (16)	60 (21)	46 (15)	67 (25)	55 (29)
p-value		0.004	0.04	0.06	0.89	0.54	0.50	0.88	0.11	0.44	0.32	0.95