Methods to diagnose degenerative disc disease

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9364568-B2
Application number	US-83660910-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jul 15, 2010
Priority date	Jul 15, 2010
Publication date	Jun 14, 2016
Grant date	Jun 14, 2016

Abstract

Methods are provided that better describe, and localize the pain generator or suspected pain generator in and around spinal discs in relation to neck or back pain so as to improve the diagnosis of degenerative disc disease. In some embodiments, there are methods for diagnosing a pain generator or a suspected pain generator in a patient suffering from back pain, the methods comprise labeling an inflammatory, vascular, neuronal, and/or metabolic pain marker at a location inside of or adjacent to an intervertebral disc in the patient suffering from back pain to increase an image of the pain marker with an imaging procedure; and imaging the labeled inflammatory, vascular, neuronal, and/or metabolic pain marker in a manner sufficient to diagnose the pain generator or suspected pain generator.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A method for diagnosing a pain generator or a suspected pain generator in a patient suffering from neck or back pain, the method comprising administering a diagnostic agent comprising a tracer that specifically binds to a pain marker at a location inside of or adjacent to an intervertebral disc in the patient suffering from neck or back pain thereby labeling the pain marker with the diagnostic agent; allowing the labeled pain marker to bind the pain generator or suspected pain generator; and comparing the amount of labeled pain marker in a location inside of or adjacent to the intervertebral disc to a normal range of the labeled pain marker inside of or adjacent to an intervertebral disc via imaging, wherein the amount of the labeled pain marker outside of the normal range indicates the location of and diagnoses the pain generator or suspected pain generator, and the labeled pain marker bound to the pain generator or suspected pain generator can be 30% or higher than the normal range of labeled pain marker or labeled pain generator present, wherein the tracer has a binding affinity of at least 10 8 M −1 , and the pain marker comprises vascular endothelial growth factor, and the diagnostic agent is disposed in a matrix to retain the diagnostic agent at the location inside of or adjacent to the intervertebral disc in the patient, the diagnostic agent being in an amount of at least 35 wt. % of the matrix in microfiber particle form.

2. A method according to claim 1 , wherein the imaging is a radiography, fluoroscopy, luminescence, PET, SPECT, CT and/or MRI imaging procedure.

3. A method according to claim 1 , wherein the matrix comprises a polymer comprising polyethylene glycol-poly(lactide-co-glycolide) (PEG-PLG).

4. A method for diagnosing a pain generator or a suspected pain generator in a patient suffering from neck or back pain, the method comprising administering a diagnostic agent comprising a tracer that specifically binds to a pain marker at a location inside of or adjacent to an intervertebral disc in the patient suffering from neck or back pain thereby labeling the pain marker with the diagnostic agent; allowing the labeled pain marker to specifically bind to the pain generator or suspected pain generator; and comparing the amount of labeled pain marker in a location inside of or adjacent to an intervertebral disc to a normal range of the labeled pain marker inside of or adjacent to an intervertebral disc via imaging, wherein the amount of the labeled pain marker outside of the normal range indicates the location of the pain generator or suspected pain generator and the labeled pain marker bound to the pain generator or suspected pain generator can be 30% or higher than the normal range of labeled pain marker or labeled pain generator present, wherein the tracer has a binding affinity of at least 10 8 M −1 , and the pain marker comprises vascular endothelial growth factor, and the diagnostic agent is disposed in a matrix to retain the diagnostic agent at the location inside of or adjacent to the intervertebral disc in the patient, the diagnostic agent being in an amount of at least 35 wt. % of the matrix in microfiber particle form, and the diagnostic agent is administered by intravenous, intramuscular, intrathecal, subcutaneous, epidural, intra-discal, peridiscal, peridural, perispinal administration or a combination thereof.

5. A method according to claim 4 , wherein the imaging is performed using radiography, fluoroscopy, luminescence, PET, SPECT, CT and/or MRI imaging techniques.

6. A method for diagnosing a pain generator or a suspected pain generator in a patient suffering from degenerative disc disease, the method comprising administering a diagnostic agent comprising a labeled pain marker that is labeled with a tracer that specifically binds to the pain marker in a location inside of or adjacent to an intervertebral disc in the patient suffering from degenerative disc disease; and comparing the amount of the labeled pain marker in a location inside of or adjacent to an intervertebral disc to a normal range of the labeled pain marker inside of or adjacent to an intervertebral disc via imaging, wherein the amount of the labeled pain marker outside of the normal range indicates the location of the pain generator or suspected pain generator and the labeled pain marker bound to the pain generator or suspected pain generator can be 30% or higher than the normal range of labeled pain marker or labeled pain generator present, wherein the tracer has a binding affinity of at least 10 8 M −1 , and the pain marker comprises vascular endothelial growth factor, and the diagnostic agent is disposed in a matrix to retain the diagnostic agent at the location inside of or adjacent to the intervertebral disc in the patient, the diagnostic agent being in an amount of at least 35 wt. % of the matrix in microfiber particle form.

7. A method according to claim 6 , wherein a plurality of labeled pain markers are determined at a plurality of sites that triangulate the pain generator or suspected pain generator.

8. A method according to claim 6 , wherein the imaging is performed using radiography, fluoroscopy, luminescence, PET, SPECT, CT and/or MRI imaging techniques.

Assignees

• Roy Josee
• Warsaw Orthopedic Inc

Inventors

• Roy Josee

Classifications

• A61B6/481

  involving the use of contrast agents · CPC title

• A61B5/4824

  Touch or pain perception evaluation (A61B5/4821 takes precedence) · CPC title

• A61M5/007

  for contrast media · CPC title

• A61B6/506

  for diagnosis of nerves · CPC title

• A61K51/0491

  Sugars, nucleosides, nucleotides, oligonucleotides, nucleic acids, e.g. DNA, RNA, nucleic acid aptamers · CPC title