Magnetic resonance imaging of the spine in adolescents.

The appearances of the spine in 14 adolescents with symptomatic intervertebral disc herniations and in 20 asymptomatic controls were compared at magnetic resonance imaging. Abnormality in the signal from the nucleus pulposus of one or more discs was present in all the patients, while only 4 of the 20 controls had any abnormal discs. Ten of the 14 patients had multiple-level disc abnormality. Five had three abnormal discs and five two-level abnormality. This suggests that there was an underlying diathesis in these patients towards the development of disc herniation.