Discogenic vertebral sclerosis

Last revised by Daniel J Bell on 17 Feb 2018

Citation, DOI, disclosures and article data

Citation:

Niknejad M, Bell D, Knipe H, Discogenic vertebral sclerosis. Reference article, Radiopaedia.org (Accessed on 20 Apr 2024) https://doi.org/10.53347/rID-23015

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.53347/rID-23015

Permalink:

https://radiopaedia.org/articles/23015

rID:

23015

Article created:

13 May 2013, Mohammad Taghi Niknejad ◉

Disclosures:

At the time the article was created Mohammad Taghi Niknejad had no recorded disclosures.

View Mohammad Taghi Niknejad's current disclosures

Last revised:

17 Feb 2018, Daniel J Bell ◉

Disclosures:

At the time the article was last revised Daniel J Bell had no recorded disclosures.

View Daniel J Bell's current disclosures

Revisions:

3 times, by 3 contributors - see full revision history and disclosures

Systems:

Musculoskeletal

Tags:

cases

Discogenic vertebral sclerosis is one of the skeletal "do not touch" lesions and should not be confused with a metastatic lesion or disc space infection. It can lead to an unnecessary biopsy.

Clinical presentation

The typical clinical presentation is a middle-aged female with chronic low back pain.

Radiographic features

Discogenic vertebral sclerosis is often a sclerotic and focal lesion (but it can be lytic or even mixed lytic-sclerotic) which is always adjacent to the endplate, and the associated disc space should be narrow. Osteophytes may be present.

In the setting of disc space narrowing and osteophytosis, focal sclerosis adjacent to an endplate should not undergo biopsy.