Disk Osteophyte Complex

I have recently submitted an editorial to the AJNR on my opinion that we should not be using disk-osteophyte-complex (DOC) term because it is a cop-out in not using the gradient echo T2W image to distinguish disk from osteophyte (disk bright, osteophyte dark). My surgeons say knowing whether the cervical disease is a disk versus an osteophyte is very important to them (diskectomy for disk versus posterior decompression for big osteophyte etc). Can I hear from other voices as to why DOC has become a default term for all DJD pathology in the cervical spine?

David M. Yousem is Director of Neuroradiology and a Professor of Radiology at the Johns Hopkins Hospital School of Medicine  Twitter: @dyousem1 NB: Opinions expressed are those of the author alone, and are not those of his employer nor of Radiopaedia.org.