Facet Joint Osteoarthritis and Low Back Pain in the Community-Based Population Medscape

Description: Objective: To evaluate the association between lumbar spine facet joint osteoarthritis (FJ OA) identified by multidetector computed tomography (CT) and low back pain (LBP) in the community-based Framingham Heart Study.
Conclusion: There is a high prevalence of FJ OA in the community. Prevalence of FJ OA increases with age with the highest prevalence at the L4-L5 spinal level. At low spinal levels women have a higher prevalence of lumbar FJ OA than men. In the present study, we failed to find an association between FJ OA, identified by multidetector CT, at any spinal level and LBP in a community-based study population.
Spine. 2008;33(23):2560-2565 Leonid Kalichman, PT, PhD; Ling Li, MPH; David H. Kim, MD; Ali Guermazi, MD; Valery Berkin, MD; Christopher J. O´Donnell, MD, MPH; Udo Hoffmann, MD, MPH; Rob Cole; David J. Hunter, MBBS, PhD