The intervertebral foramen at the L4/L5 level and its relationship to age

The intervertebral foramen (IVF) is a region where nerve roots and mixed spinal nerves are particularly vulnerable to compression due to reduce width or height of the foramen. There is limited understanding of how the intervertebral foramen undergoes morphological changes at the L4/L5 region with aging. The study was an accessible lumbar MRI image-based retrospective cross-sectional examination of the lumbar spine. This study took place at the Imaging Department of the Management & Science Medical Centre (MSUMC) in Selangor, Malaysia. A purposive sampling method was employed for data collection and research tools to gather the samples. In evaluating intra-observer reliability for measurement W1, the Cronbach's Alpha values were 0.500 for the right IVF and 0.902 for the left IVF, suggesting moderate to high reliability. In the right IVF, the most prevalent shape in Cluster 2 is Pyriform, which appears 10 times (45.5%). The detailed morphology of the exit region of the intervertebral foramen is important where size and shape are often linked to nerve root compression. This research enhances our understanding of age-related anatomical variations in the lumbar region between genders and adds to the overall knowledge of spinal disorders.