Lumbar

Low back pain

Surgery

Subcutaneous tissue

Endocrinology

Subcutaneous adipose tissue

Radiology

Alternative medicine

Degeneration (medical)

Internal medicine

Medicine

Adipose tissue

Magnetic resonance imaging

Pathology

Diabetes mellitus

Life and Medical Sciences

In this study, we aimed to determine whether the presence and duration of diabetes mellitus (DM) is ‎associated with changes in intervertebral disc degeneration, epiphyseal plaque degeneration, and ‎subcutaneous fat tissue thickness. Diabetic patients and non-diabetic participants (control group) who applied to the ‎internal medicine outpatient clinic between 2020-2022 and had lumbar spine magnetic resonance imaging ‎due to low back and/or leg pain were included the study. Disc degeneration, epiphyseal plaque ‎degeneration, and subcutaneous fat tissue thickness parameters of DM patients and control group were ‎reviewed retrospectively, and the results were statistically evaluated. There were 80 DM patients in the ‎patient group, 25 (31.3%) of these patients were male and 55 (68.8%) were female. There was a total of ‎‎121 participants in the control group, of which 39 (32.2%) were male and 82 (67.8%) were female. The ‎mean age of the patient group was 57.85±10.76 years, while the mean age of the control group was ‎‎54.23±13.09 years. There was no significant difference between the duration of DM and disc degeneration, ‎epiphyseal plaque degeneration, and subcutaneous adipose tissue thickness. However, there was a ‎significant difference between the control group and the DM patient group in terms of disc degeneration and ‎epiphyseal plaque degeneration (p=0.003 and p=0.017, respectively). This study reveals that patients with ‎diabetes have an increased susceptibility to disc degeneration and epiphyseal plaque degeneration, ‎regardless of disease duration. Control and treatment of diabetic disease will make an important contribution ‎to the prevention of secondary complications‎.

The Effect of Diabetes and Disease Duration on Disc Degeneration and ‎Subcutaneous Adipose Tissue Thickness