Morphometric variations of the lumbar spinal canal in adult egyptians

Abstract EN

Two hundred normal anteroposterior and lateral lumbar spine radiographs formed the material of this study.

They belonged to subjects that attended the outpatient clinic of the Internal Medicine Department of Ain Shams University Hospitals for medical check-up.

Those subjects proved to be free from any bone disease and had no neurological complaint.

One hundred and twelve were males and eighty eight were females.

The mean and standard deviations of the transverse and anteroposterior diameters of the lumbar spinal canal as well as the spinal canal index were calculated in relation to age and sex for each vertebral level.

The mean values for both diameters were higher in males.

Values increased steadily from L1 to L5 for the transverse diameter while the reverse held true for the anteroposterior diameter.

Spinal canal index showed a gradual increase from L1 to L5 and was higher in males.

Racial differences in the above morphometric mean values were observed when comparison was made with data from other countries.

The mean pedicle index showed a parallel picture to the transverse canal diameter.

Mean values of canal to body ratio were computed against age and sex and showed a fixed pattern.

The results demonstrated the usefulness of spinal canal index and the canal to body ratio, in contrast to individual measurements, in the evaluation of the width of the lumbar spinal canal