Classification of Age-Related Changes in Lumbar Spine with the Help of MRI Scores

A human spine is a complicated structure of bones, joints, ligaments and muscles which all undergo change as we age. For most people, these changes occur in a gradual and painless manner. However, a sudden change caused naturally or through injury, can result in a back pain. The purpose of this research is to unveil the ageing pattern of the lumbar spine and to see the changes in spinal features with ageing process. The data used in this research was in the form of lumbar spine magnetic resonance images (MRI) of patients ranging from age 2 to 93 years. MRI scores of key spinal features namely; vertebral-height, disc-height, disc-signal, para-spinal muscles intensities, psoas muscle, fat signal and cerebrospinal fluid were recorded and used in the analysis. Intelligent data analysis technique such as self-organizing map was applied to understand and visualize the variations of spinal features seen among the population. This growth/degeneration pattern is important to reassure patients that the results of their scan are not unusual or indicative of any disease. This research work will provide a more concrete view of spinal ageing process which can be used to draw a borderline between normal growth, undergrowth and overgrowth of the human lumbar spine with respect to the person´s age.