When interviewing patients with longstanding lower back pain one of the areas that we must focus on is the nature of the patient’s pain, how it “feels”, what if anything relieves it, what worsens it, where exactly is it, what activities are limited and so forth. Determining whether a patient is in fact experiencing back Read More

Modic changes have recently been receiving a lot of interest from the popular press. This is due to an MRI finding, having clinical importance, which had not previously been seen.  A high percentage of test subjects respond favourably to long term antibiotic treatment. This is significantly better than results of all other conventional treatments. The Read More

Modic changes can be seen on MRI Scans and are represented by inflammation/infection in the vertebral body adjacent to the disc – either above/below or both –  this happens with patients that have experienced a disc herniation. Sometimes the cause of the inflammation is bacterial while in others it is likely to be of mechanic Read More

Much has been written in the popular press about the clinical significance of Modic changes – an MRI finding that has not previously been identified as having clinical importance. Furthermore, it has been demonstrated that many of these patients respond very favourably to long term antibiotic treatment compared to all other conventional treatments and the Read More

Modic changes as seen on MRI are an inflammation/infection in the vertebral body adjacent to the disc – either above/below or both – in patients that have experienced a disc herniation. In some instances the cause of the inflammation is bacterial while in others it is likely to be of mechanical origin. Examples of Modic Read More

MAST Certified Clinicians have undertaken an educational programme to teach them techniques in diagnosing and managing patients that show signs of Modic changes on MRI scans. In previous articles, we have already seen that Modic changes have been linked to lower back pain, and that MAST antibiotic treatment has been show to be effective in Read More

The MAST Medical Academy has developed an educational programme and an examination that leads to MAST Certification in order to ensure that clinicians are properly educated in the diagnosis and management of patients who are seeking treatment for Modic changes as seen on MRI scans. Education – Course Content Clinicians are taught; how to differentiate Read More

Recently there has been a lot of coverage around Modic changes in the vertebrae, which research has indicated as being linked with lower back pain. Modic Antibiotic Spine Therapy (MAST) has been demonstrated to have a positive correlation with reduction in that back pain. To help the public make informed choices about practitioners claiming to Read More

The acronym MAST stands for Modic Antibiotic Spine Therapy and this self-explanatory phrase means exactly what it states. Two recently published studies in the European Spine Journal indentifying the bacteria found in patients who demonstrate Modic changes in their vertebrae as well as the highly successful treatment of these patients with antibiotics have received considerable Read More

In this blog post I will provide a brief summary of Modic changes, which are named after Dr Michael Modic who first described them 25 years ago. Modic Changes are physical changes to the vertebra of the spine, which have been associated with lower back pain. Both infection and mechanical causes have been shown to Read More