CT assisted morphological study of lumbar endplate

Abstract

To study and measure the anatomic structure of lumbar vertebral endplate structure in healthy adults by computed tomography(CT) technique in order to provide a useful guidance for the optimal design and clinical application of lumbar prostheses. Sixty healthy adults (male and female equals) were recruited for full-waist CT scan after signing the informed consent form in the imaging department of the Second Affiliated Hospital of Xi'an Jiaotong University. The scanning data was imported into the computer aided software Mimics 16.0 for 3D reconstruction and measurement. The acquisition indexes included median sagittal diameter, maximum coronal diameter, concavity depth, median sagittal depression angle, coronal depression angle and so on. Finally, the collected data were statistically analyzed by the statistical software. The median sagittal diameter and the maximum coronal diameter of the upper and lower endplates were not only different between the different sexes(P<0.05), but also were increased with the increase of the lumbar spine sequence. The concavity depth of upper and lower endplates had no gender differences(P>0.05), but had a little change from L₁ to L₅, fluctuating from 1.5 to 2.0 mm and from 2.2 to 3.9 mm, respectively. In the same sequence, the concavity depth of lower endplate in males was greater than that of upper endplate, and the difference was statistically significant(P<0.05), but there was no significant difference in the concavity depth of upper and lower endplate in females(P>0.05). Sagittal concavity angle and coronal concavity angle of upper and lower endplates changed slightly with the increase of vertebral order, and there was no gender difference in sagittal and coronal concavity angle of most vertebral sequences (P>0.05). Statistics showed that the largest concavity near the caudal lumbar endplate was located on the dorsal side of the endplate plane. The anatomical structure of the lumbar endplate is very complicated. It is important to master the anatomical parameters of the endplate and make full use of CT before operation for the development and clinical application of the lumbar prosthesis.