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. Author manuscript; available in PMC: 2015 Jul 1.
Published in final edited form as: Osteoarthritis Cartilage. 2014 May 10;22(7):980–985. doi: 10.1016/j.joca.2014.04.027

Table 1.

Definitions of histopathologies associated with disc degeneration. The provided definition regards the pathological state of anatomical features within the disc and vertebral body.

Osteophytosis
OST
Abnormal bone growth or bony spurs that occur around degenerating joints
Concentric tears
CT
Vertically oriented tears that result in separations between annular fibers
Radial tears
RT
Transversally oriented tears that perpendicularly disrupt annular fibers
Cartilage endplate
CEP
Degradation of the hyaline cartilage between the disc and bone resulting in disruptions and absence
Endplate rim lesions
RL
Broad term for disruptions through both the cartilage and bony endplate of the vertebral rim
Inner AF
Morphology
IAM
Inward bulging of the annulus that occurs with disc degeneration

Abbreviations given are used in other figures.