Therapeutic angiogenesis for treatment of the spine

摘要

The invention relates to methods for the diagnosis, amelioration, and treatment of back pain, particularly lumbar back pain, in particular, back pain caused by muscular abnormalities, vertebral body osteoporosis, and disc degeneration. Patients with back pain are categorized into specific subsets that are deemed to have potential to respond to therapy. In particular, the invention includes a therapy involving stimulation of neovascularization so as to increase perfusion of various spine compartments.

主权项

1. A method of diagnosing a patient with back pain as having an ischemic disc disease comprising:
a. selecting a patient with back pain; b. obtaining image data of at least a portion of a spine of the patient, the image data including at least a portion of an intravertebral vasculature proximal to an intervertebral disc endplate; c. quantifying localized perfusion of at least the portion of the intravertebral vasculature proximal to the intervertebral disc endplate from the image data; and d. diagnosing said patient as having the ischemic disc disease where the quantified localized perfusion indicates hypoperfusion within the at least a portion of the intravertebral vasculature proximal to the intervertebral disc endplate.