Prevalence of Lumbar Intervertebral Disc Herniation in Asymptomatic Individuals on MRI

Abstract

Objectives: To determine the prevalence and distribution of lumbar intervertebral disc herniation in asymptomatic individuals aged 20– 80 years undergoing MRI. Methods: This one-year hospital-based cross-sectional study included 89 participants aged 20–80 years who underwent whole-spine MRI at the Department of Radio-diagnosis, KLE'S Prabhakar Kore Hospital and Medical Research Centre, Belagavi. Participants with low back pain, lower-limb paresthesia/radiculopathy, major spinal deformity, prior spinal trauma or surgery, inflammatory/systemic spinal disease, or radiotherapy exposure were excluded. MRI was performed on a 3.0-T Siemens Magnetom Spectra system using sagittal and axial T1-weighted, T2-weighted, and STIR sequences. Demographic, clinical, lifestyle, and MRI findings were summarized using frequencies, percentages, means, and standard deviations; reported association p-values were retained from the source analysis. Results: