Temporal Association of Annular Tears and Nuclear Degeneration: Lessons from the Pediatric Population

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE: Studies done mainly in adults have shown an association between annular tears and nuclear degeneration. We wanted to study this association in the pediatric population to better understand the natural history of disk degeneration in its early stages. We hypothesized that this association is discernible even at a young age and that annular tears precede nuclear degeneration. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Twenty-six children with back pain and known disk pathology were identified from our radiology report data base. Two neuroradiologists independently evaluated T12 through S1 intervertebral disks in these images. One reader evaluated the disks for the presence and type of annular tears. The other reader graded the signal intensity of the disks on an ordinal scale and the extent of disk degeneration on the Pfirrmann scale. Mean degeneration and signal-intensity grades were compared for disks with radial tears, disks with nonradial tears, and disks without annular tears. RESULTS: Fifty-six disks had radial tears. These demonstrated significantly higher nuclear degeneration grades and greater signal-intensity loss than disks with nonracial tears or disks with no annular tears. About one third (30.3%) of the disks with radial tears had a normal nuclear signal intensity. Only 3% of disks with a signal-intensity grade of >= 3 had an intact annulus. CONCLUSIONS: Nuclear degeneration in children is associated with radial annular tears and rarely occurs in the absence of annular tears.