Abstract

Back pain comprises almost one third of occupational injuries, and physicians, with the clinical and technical means available to them, are having difficulty characterizing the symptomatic state of patients suffering from low back pain. This publication contains the results of an evaluation of the capability of a new open field magnetic resonance instrument (OFMRI) to determine the patient’s symptomatic state when the spine is anatomically vertical, is supporting a load, or is moving. The study of intervertebral disks using the OFMRI has not been very useful in diagnosing low back pain. Research mainly confirms that the only way to identify a low back pain individual is to measure disk space narrowing, and that this can be done by an ordinary x-ray. They nevertheless were able to develop a considerable data base which will allow research to focus on other physiological aspects of low back pain.