I'm doing an imaging study in patients with sciatic nerve radiculopathy, and I'm trying to find out the vertebral level that is adjacent to where the L4, L5, and S1 nerve roots enter the cord.
I understand that there will likely be a large amount of variability among people, and most of the resources I've seen so far suggest that they enter the cord somewhere between the level of L1, T12, and T11 vertebrae.
Does anyone know of any studies (e.g. fiber tracing, DWI) that have attempted to more formally answer this question?
Thanks for your help!
Dan
Do you want to track the roots L4 to S1 or the fascicles of the sciatic nerve?
The former would, in my opinion, simply require that you follow the root from one to another entry zone. The latter would be really fascinating, but I am unaware of any DTI studies in the field.
HI Dirk, thanks for your response. I am interested in tracking the roots - L4 to S1. However, my original question should have been more clear: I'm actually interested in finding out where the roots terminate in the cord. Because I'm interested in sensory afferents carrying nociceptive information, and because these fibers enter into Lissauer's tract, traveling up or down several segments before synapsing, I wondered if there were any good references describing where they are most likely to terminate.
If anyone is interested, a colleague directed me to the following publication, which may have some insights into the question:
http://jap.physiology.org/content/early/2015/03/26/japplphysiol.01128.2014
Thanks,
Dan
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