Vertebral end-plate signal changes

Patients with sciatica frequently experience disabling back pain. One of the proposed causes for back pain is vertebral end-plate signal changes (VESC) as visualized by magnetic resonance imaging (MRI).

In contrast with the intuitive feeling of spine specialists, those with and those without VESC reported disabling back pain in nearly the same proportion. Therefore, VESC does not seem to be responsible for disabling back pain in patients with sciatica 1).

1)
el Barzouhi A, Vleggeert-Lankamp CL, van der Kallen BF, Lycklama à Nijeholt GJ, van den Hout WB, Koes BW, Peul WC; Leiden–The Hague Spine Intervention Prognostic Study Group. Back pain's association with vertebral end-plate signal changes in sciatica. Spine J. 2014 Feb 1;14(2):225-33. doi: 10.1016/j.spinee.2013.08.058. Epub 2013 Nov 13. PubMed PMID: 24239802.