Featured Article Academic Journal Main Category: Back Pain Also Included In: Genetics;MRI / PET / Ultrasound Article Date: 23 Sep 2012 - 0:00 PDT

Current ratings for: Gene Flaw Linked To Lower Back Pain

While more research is needed to fully understand the link, the team, from King's College London, hopes the study will lead to new treatments for the condition.

LDD is a common age-related problem: for instance, over a third of women aged 30 to 50 will have at least one degenerate disc in their spine.

When the disc degenerates it becomes dehydrated, loses height, and the vertebrae on either side develop bony growths called osteophytes. As these changes take place, they cause or exacerbate lower back pain.

Back pain is not a well understood condition, despite the fact it "can have a serious impact on people's lives and is one of the most common causes of sickness leave, costing both the NHS and UK economy billions each year," first author, Frances Williams, Senior Lecturer in the Department of Twin Research and Genetic Epidemiology at King's College London, says in a press statement.

In the case of LDD, scientists have for some time believed genes are involved, because up to 4 out of 5 people with LDD inherit the condition.

Williams and colleagues are the first to suggest there is a link between LDD and a gene called PARK2.

They analyzed the MRI scans using a measuring technique they had developed, which they describe in their paper as "a continuous trait based on disc space narrowing and osteophytes growth which is measurable on all forms of imaging (plain radiograph, CT scan and MRI)".

The participant data came from "five cohorts of Northern European extraction each having GWA data imputed to HapMap V.2".

Read the original here:
Gene Flaw Linked To Lower Back Pain

Comments are closed.