Is there a diagnostic term for this?
 

On my discogram, the painful disc showed up on the scan as being mottled, like a cheetahs' spots. Is this just degeneration, or is there another term for it? My surgeon only said that it shouldn't look like that, the dye should've stayed in the center like it did on the other levels. This is just my curiosity, as I am no longer the unproud owner of that disc (it's now a ProDisc) but I'm still for some reason looking for the answers of why I had such pain with an MRI that so many people said was 'normal' aside from decreased disc height. Anyone know if there is a term for this mottled look?

did you have any intradiscal treatment? IDET? intradiscal injections? The more severe the DDD, the more disrupted the nucleus is. You would not believe how different the tissue feels compared to healthy nucleus material.) What did Dr. J say about it after your surgery? Did he note it?

Mark

Dr J said that there was 'nothing left of the disc-no wonder it hurt!' That was it. I never had anything done to the nucleus, only the two lami's. That's why I was wondering if that might have been causing some of my pain, since people have decreased disc height all the time without pain. I was also curious if that was the same thing as an annular tear. Do you know what that looks like on discogram?

An annular tear is a hole in the disc annulus. It often appears as a high intensity zone (HIZ) or bright spot on an MRI. They often don't show at all on MRI... it depends on where the tear is in relation to the 'slices' that are taken. Annular tear is different than talking about appearance of disc nucleus.

Mark