Ozlen Karabulut; Hatice Akay; Zulfu Karabulut; Hüseyin Özevren; Gunay Saka; Savas Hatipoglu & Engin Deveci

The objective of this study was to evaluate the variation in position of the conus medullaris (CM) in male and female patients without spinal deformity, to correlate the termination level in magnetic resonance (MR) images of the lumbar spine. 921 patients consisted of 607 men and 314 women were evaluated by MRI. The strength of T1 weighted MRI device was 1.5 Tesla. The patients were in supine position when measured. The termination level of the conus medullaris was recorded in relation to the upper, middle or lower third of the adjacent vertebra and the adjacent intervertebral disc. The patients in our study group were examined for low back pain. The members with spinal deformity were excluded. The distribution of conus medullaris localization was measured to range from T12 to L2-L3. There was a statistically significant difference in the mean conus medullaris position related to gender also a significant difference between increasing age and conus position in female patients. These findings suggest that the distribution of CM location in a large adult population was shown to range from the upper third of T12 to the lower third of L2-L3 disc space both in women and men.

KEY WORDS: Conus medullaris; MRI.

KARABULUT, O.; AKAY, H.; KARABULUT, Z.; ÖZEVREN, H.; SAKA, G.; HATIPOGLU, S. & DEVECI, E. Conus Medullaris position in an adult population: Analysis of magnetic resonance imaging. Int. J. Morphol., 34(4):1352-1356, 2016.