Intranuclear cleft

Case contributed by Matt A. Morgan
Diagnosis not applicable

Presentation

Back pain

Patient Data

Age: 20 years
Gender: Male
mri

Normal appearance of the upper lumbar spine.

Annotated image

Orange lines highlight the intranuclear cleft in these normal discs.

Case Discussion

These discs show a linear T2 hypointense signal through the center of the nucleus pulposus, which a normal variation. The signal represents "intranuclear" fibrous tissue and should not be confused with age-related dessication that results in loss of T2 signal.

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