Abstract

BACKGROUND:
The intervertebral cartilage supports the human body structurally. It absorbs shock and allows movement between adjacent vertebrae1. This framework deteriorates with age, a physiological consequence of                  the normal aging process.
OBJECTIVE:
To assess alterations that occur between vertebrae of the spinal column from L1 to L5 and to study                 the changes in vertebral height, occurrence of osteophytes in the lumbar spine vertebrae as well as                     the prevalence of ligamentum flavum hypertrophy and other signs of degeneration according to the age and sex.
PATIENTS AND METHODS: 
The cross sectional study was performed  by  examining (600) patients suffering from a sharp pain in               the lumbar region presented at MRI units at Al-Nuiman Hospital in Baghdad and Ibn Sina teaching Hospital in Mosul .
RESULTS:
The peak age incidence was at the age range of (60-69) years for both degeneration and herniation. Below the age of 40 years, there were 46 patients (7.6%) with degeneration and 22 patients (3.6%) with herniation, while over 40 years the figures were 369 patients (61.5%) showed degeneration and 243 patients (40.5%) with herniation respectively. In addition, there are158 patients have both degeneration and hernia at same time. Out of 600 patients, 371(61.83%) of them are females and 229 (38.17%) are males. The man-to-woman ratio is 1 : 1.6. The vast majority of patients showed degeneration and herniation at L4-L5 level being 367 discs (61.1 %) and 163 patients (27.1 %) out of 600 discs located at that level respectively. Decreased height of the disc increases the potential for fundamental framework changes to the disc, bone and connective tissue.
CONCLUSION:
There is a universal impression that age and sex have an influence on the degeneration of disc of lumber spine