CClinicalTrials.gg
CompletedNCT02921490Updated Feb 19, 2020Results posted

FDG PET/MRI Evaluation of Facet Joint Pain

An interventional study of FDG PET/MR examination. in Low Back Pain, sponsored by Mayo Clinic. Completed at 1 site in United States. Open to participants aged 50 Years to 100 Years. Per ClinicalTrials.gov, last updated 2020-02-19.

Sponsored by Mayo Clinic · Not applicable, Interventional, and Diagnostic

Phase
Not applicable
Study type
Interventional
Enrollment
10
Allocation
Not applicable
Ages
50 Years to 100 Years
Sex
All
01

Study summary

Chronic pain incurs over half a trillion dollars in lost productivity (healthcare, lost wages, etc) annually. The most common source is low back pain (LBP), often from facet joints. The clinical evaluation of facet joints is challenging and anatomic imaging findings of facet joint; degenerative change; correlate poorly with pain. Therefore, it is difficult to select appropriate candidate patients/facet joints to treat. Misguided percutaneous treatment can cost thousands of dollars per session and delay diagnoses. Very limited retrospective information suggests that high grade peri-facet MRI signal change correlates to the side of LBP. However, this has not fully characterized the imaging findings and has not correlated to expert clinical exam/percutaneous response, precluding robust and meaningful clinical impact. Minimal retrospective data concludes inflammatory changes can be identified on FDG-PET exams, but the evidence of correlation to patient pain is lacking. Limited DWI exists for inflammatory spondyloarthropathies and myopathies, but is also lacking.

This is an exploratory study investigating the utility of FDG PET activity and MRI signal change around facet joints in the clinical management of low back pain. This study will help determine if such imaging biomarkers could change clinical management. Additionally, this will provide data that will be vital to planning a larger prospective study evaluating the ability of imaging biomarkers to predict response to comparison medial branch blocks and RF ablation for treatment of facet joint pain.

Read the detailed description

10 patients with a clinical suspicion of at least 60% likelihood that low back pain arises from the lumbar facet joints will be recruited in clinic. The clinicians will rate the likelihood clinically of facet joint origin of pain and will assign a theoretical treatment plan based on initial clinical impression. They will indicate which facet joints, if any, they would refer for percutaneous treatment. The patients will undergo and FDG PET/MRI of the lumbar spine with IV gadolinium. The MRI signal change and enhancement of the lumbar facet joints will be graded by 2 radiologists blinded to the clinical data. The FDG PET scan activity of the facet joints will be graded by two nuclear medicine radiologists blinded to the clinical information. The clinicians will then be segmentally unblended to the imaging data as follows: 1. facet joints with high grade MRI signal change, 2. facet joints with any MRI signal change, 3. facet joints with high grade PET activity, and 4. facet joints with any PET activity. At each of these 4 steps, the clinician will indicate if this information would have the potential to alter clinical care (assuming that the imaging biomarker in question would be a surrogate for inflammation and pain) and if the information is concordant to the clinical impression. The clinical course of each patients will be followed for 1 year after undergoing the PET/MRI examination.

02

Conditions studied

  • Low Back Pain
03

In context

Arthralgia

273 studies on the registry are indexed under Arthralgia; 41 are open to participants now.

This study's enrollment of 10 is below the median of 63 across 219 interventional studies indexed under Arthralgia.

Browse Arthralgia studies →

Lead sponsor

Mayo Clinic is the lead sponsor of 3,218 studies on the registry; 670 are open to participants now.

Of its 445 completed or terminated interventional studies of FDA-regulated products, 313 (70%) have results posted.

Counted across the registry records on this site, refreshed daily.

04

Who can participate

Ages eligible
50 Years to 100 Years
Sexes eligible
All
Accepts healthy volunteers
No

Eligibility criteria

Eligibility criteria - inclusion:

  1. Male and female patients over the age of 50-100 years with clinically suspected facetogenic low back pain.
  2. Patients must be considered to have at least a 60% chance of having facet joints as the major source of low back pain based on overall clinical impression.
  3. All patients will undergo a standardized clinical exam by an experienced physical medicine and rehabilitation clinician to confirm clinical suspicion of axial low back pain.
  4. Patients with either unilateral or bilateral axial low back pain may be enrolled.

Eligibility criteria - exclusion:

  1. Pregnancy
  2. Prior lumbar back surgery
  3. History of endovascular repair of abdominal aortic aneurysm or other postoperative change likely to introduce imaging artifact to the lumbar spine
  4. Suspected spine infection
  5. Known osseous metastatic or other osseous malignancy
  6. Facet joint percutaneous treatment within the past 2 months
  7. History of major lumbar spine trauma
  8. Inability to provide own consent
  9. Claustrophobia, cardiac pacemaker/wires in place, any absolute contraindication to MRI
  10. Impaired renal function indicated by a GFR less than 30
  11. Gadolinium allergy
  12. Highly radiosensitive medical conditions
  13. Patients who are unable to lay quietly for 60 minutes of imaging
05

Study design

Phase
Not applicable
Primary purpose
Diagnostic
Allocation
Not applicable
Intervention model
Single group
Masking
None (open label)
Enrollment
10 participants (actual)

Study arms

  • Experimental
    PET/MR recipients

    All recruited patients will undergo FDG PET/MR of the lumbar spine as the single arm of the study.

    Device: FDG PET/MR examination.

Interventions

  • DeviceFDG PET/MR examination.

    All recruited patients will undergo an FDG PET examination focused on the lumbar spine.

06

What researchers measure

Primary outcomes

  1. Facet Joint High Grade FDG Activity Concordance to Pain

    Concordance of high grade FDG scores with clinical impression

    Time frame: 2 years

  2. Facet Joint All Grades of FDG Activity Concordance to Pain

    Number/percentage of subjects (reported in sides, with two sides (Left or Right) per patient) for whom any grade (any evidence of increased FDG activity) of FDG scores are in concordance with clinical impression

    Time frame: 2 years

  3. Facet Joint High Grade MRI Signal Change Concordance to Pain

    Number/percentage of subjects (reported in sides, with two sides (Left or Right) per patient) for whom any grade (any evidence of increased FDG activity) of FDG scores are in concordance with clinical impression

    Time frame: 2 years

  4. Facet Joint Any Grade of MRI Signal Change Concordance to Pain

    Number/percentage of subjects (reported in sides, with two sides (Left or Right) per patient) for whom any grade (any evidence of increased FDG activity) of FDG scores are in concordance with clinical impression

    Time frame: 2 years

  5. Facet Joint High Grade FDG Activity Potential Effect on Management

    Number/percentage of subjects for whom high grade FDG scores would change clinical management

    Time frame: 2 years

  6. Facet Joint All Grades of FDG Activity Potential Effect on Management

    Number/percentage of subjects for whom any grade FDG scores would change clinical management

    Time frame: 2 years

  7. Facet Joint High Grade MRI Signal Change Potential Effect on Management

    Number/percentage of subjects for whom high grade MRI facet joint signal change would change clinical management

    Time frame: 2 years

  8. Facet Joint Any Grade MRI Signal Change Potential Effect on Management

    Number/percentage of subjects for whom any grade MRI facet joint signal change would change clinical management

    Time frame: 2 years

07

Results

Posted Feb 19, 2020

Participant flow

Participant flow — Overall Study
MilestonePET/MR Recipients
Started10
Completed10
Not completed0

Outcome measures

PrimaryFacet Joint High Grade FDG Activity Concordance to Pain

Concordance of high grade FDG scores with clinical impression

Time frame:
2 years
Reported as:
Number · concordance correlation coefficient
Facet Joint High Grade FDG Activity Concordance to Pain
concordance correlation coefficientPET/MR Recipients
Facet Joint High Grade FDG Activity Concordance to Pain0.10
PrimaryFacet Joint All Grades of FDG Activity Concordance to Pain

Number/percentage of subjects (reported in sides, with two sides (Left or Right) per patient) for whom any grade (any evidence of increased FDG activity) of FDG scores are in concordance with clinical impression

Time frame:
2 years
Reported as:
Number · sides (left or right)
Facet Joint All Grades of FDG Activity Concordance to Pain
sides (left or right)PET/MR Recipients
Facet Joint All Grades of FDG Activity Concordance to Pain12
PrimaryFacet Joint High Grade MRI Signal Change Concordance to Pain

Number/percentage of subjects (reported in sides, with two sides (Left or Right) per patient) for whom any grade (any evidence of increased FDG activity) of FDG scores are in concordance with clinical impression

Time frame:
2 years
Reported as:
Number · sides (left or right)
Facet Joint High Grade MRI Signal Change Concordance to Pain
sides (left or right)PET/MR Recipients
Facet Joint High Grade MRI Signal Change Concordance to Pain12
PrimaryFacet Joint Any Grade of MRI Signal Change Concordance to Pain

Number/percentage of subjects (reported in sides, with two sides (Left or Right) per patient) for whom any grade (any evidence of increased FDG activity) of FDG scores are in concordance with clinical impression

Time frame:
2 years
Reported as:
Number · sides (Left or Right)
Facet Joint Any Grade of MRI Signal Change Concordance to Pain
sides (Left or Right)PET/MR Recipients
Facet Joint Any Grade of MRI Signal Change Concordance to Pain12
PrimaryFacet Joint High Grade FDG Activity Potential Effect on Management

Number/percentage of subjects for whom high grade FDG scores would change clinical management

Time frame:
2 years
Reported as:
Count of participants · Participants
Facet Joint High Grade FDG Activity Potential Effect on Management
ParticipantsPET/MR Recipients
Facet Joint High Grade FDG Activity Potential Effect on Management8
PrimaryFacet Joint All Grades of FDG Activity Potential Effect on Management

Number/percentage of subjects for whom any grade FDG scores would change clinical management

Time frame:
2 years
Reported as:
Count of participants · Participants
Facet Joint All Grades of FDG Activity Potential Effect on Management
ParticipantsPET/MR Recipients
Facet Joint All Grades of FDG Activity Potential Effect on Management8
PrimaryFacet Joint High Grade MRI Signal Change Potential Effect on Management

Number/percentage of subjects for whom high grade MRI facet joint signal change would change clinical management

Time frame:
2 years
Reported as:
Count of participants · Participants
Facet Joint High Grade MRI Signal Change Potential Effect on Management
ParticipantsPET/MR Recipients
Facet Joint High Grade MRI Signal Change Potential Effect on Management8
PrimaryFacet Joint Any Grade MRI Signal Change Potential Effect on Management

Number/percentage of subjects for whom any grade MRI facet joint signal change would change clinical management

Time frame:
2 years
Reported as:
Count of participants · Participants
Facet Joint Any Grade MRI Signal Change Potential Effect on Management
ParticipantsPET/MR Recipients
Facet Joint Any Grade MRI Signal Change Potential Effect on Management8

Adverse events

Collected over 1 year. Non-serious events are listed at a 1% frequency threshold.

Adverse event summary by group
GroupDeathsSeriousOther
PET/MR Recipients0/10 (0%)0/10 (0%)1/10 (10%)
Most frequent other events
Most frequent other events
EventPET/MR Recipients
IV site swellingBlood and lymphatic system disorders1/10

Baseline characteristics

Age, Continuous
Age, Continuous(years)PET/MR Recipients
Mean63 (50 to 79)
Sex: Female, Male
Sex: Female, Male(Participants)PET/MR Recipients
Female7
Male3
Race and Ethnicity Not Collected
Race and Ethnicity Not Collected(Participants)PET/MR Recipients
Region of Enrollment
Region of Enrollment(Participants)PET/MR Recipients
United States10
Number of patients with back pain
Number of patients with back pain(Participants)PET/MR Recipients
Count of participants10
08

Study locations

1 site
  • Mayo Clinic in Rochester
    Rochester, Minnesota 55905, United States
09

References and documents

Study documents

  • Protocol and statistical analysis plan · May 17, 2017

Documents are hosted by the registry — open the source record to download them.

Individual participant data

Plan to share: No

10

Updates

Tracking since Sep 25, 2026
No changes since tracking began. The registry record was last updated on Feb 19, 2020, before this site started recording changes on Sep 25, 2026. Its history is on ClinicalTrials.gov ↗
11

Registry details

Key details

Study ID
NCT02921490
Lead sponsor
Mayo Clinic
Responsible party
Vance Lehman (M.D. , Assistant Professor of Radiology, Mayo Clinic) — Principal investigator
First posted
Oct 3, 2016
Start date
Sep 2016
Primary completion
Nov 2018
Completion
Oct 2019
Results posted
Feb 19, 2020
Last update
Feb 19, 2020

Study contacts

Vance T Lehman
principal investigator · Mayo Clinic

Oversight

Data monitoring committee
No
View the source record on ClinicalTrials.gov ↗

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This study is completed, as verified in Feb 2020. You cannot join it, but the record below documents what was studied.

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