Abstract:

Lumbar disc degeneration (LDD) is a chronic, complex, and multifactorial musculoskeletal disease. Its core lesion lies in structural damage to the intervertebral disc, which gradually compromises its mechanical stability and shock-absorbing capabilities, resulting in intractable lumbocrural pain. LDD patients often lack typical clinical manifestations in the early stages, posing challenges for accurate diagnosis. Once irreversible structural damage occurs in the later stages, clinical repair options and therapeutic effects are limited. Therefore, early identification and intervention are crucial. Given that metabolic disorders occur even in the preclinical stage of LDD, it is a long-term, dynamic, and controllable quantitative change process, early monitoring and intervention targeting metabolic imbalances could potentially pave the way for novel prevention and treatment strategies for LDD. Against this backdrop, there is an urgent clinical need to develop a non-invasive, quantitative, accurate, and reliable detection technology to promptly capture early biometabolic abnormalities of LDD. This paper summarizes and explores the latest research advancements in understanding the biometabolic characteristics of LDD, including the identification of sensitive metabolic biomarkers, the application of advanced detection technologies, and the establishment of reliable evaluation indicators. The ultimate goal is to provide robust support for preclinical prevention efforts, intervention strategy development, and in-depth investigation into the underlying pathogenesis of LDD.

Key words: Lumbar disc degeneration, Metabolism, Early Diagnosis, Diagnostic techniques and procedures, Magnetic resonance imaging