Correlation between cervical curvature and cervical disc bulging in young patients with neck pain

Abstract

To explore the correlation between the curvature of the cervical spine and the degree of cervical disc bulging in young patients with cervical pain. The clinical data of 539 young patients with neck pain from January 2015 to December 2018 were retrospectively analyzed. There were 251 males and 288 females, aged 18 to 40 (32.2±6.3) years old. The cervical curvature and cervical disc bulging were measured by cervical X-ray and MRI. According to cervical curvature, the patients were divided into 175 cases of cervical lordosis group (cervical curvature > 7 mm), 163 cases of cervical erection group (0 <cervical curvature ≤ 7 mm), and 201 cases of cervical kyphosis group (cervical curvature ≤ 0 mm). The degreeof cervical intervertebral disc bulging was compared among three groups, and the correlation between cervical curvature and cervical disc bulging was analyzed by Pearson correlation coefficient. The cervical disc bulging of cervical lordosis group, cervical erection group, and cervical kyphosis group were(0.83±0.24), (1.47±0.58), (2.96±1.11) mm, respectively. The degree of cervical disc bulging in cervical lordosis group was less than cervical erection group and cervical kyphosis group(P<0.05). Pearson correlation analysis showed that the degree of cervical disc bulging was significantly negatively correlated with cervical curvature(R=-0.561, P<0.05). The degree of cervical disc bulging in young patients with neck pain is closely related to the reduction of cervical curvature.