RT Book, Section
A1 Manning, Paul
A1 Handwerker, Jason
A2 Tehranzadeh, Jamshid
SR Print(0)
ID 1181070532
T1 Spine MRI
T2 Basic Musculoskeletal Imaging, 2e
YR 2021
FD 2021
PB McGraw-Hill Education
PP New York, NY
SN 9781260459975
LK accessmedicine.mhmedical.com/content.aspx?aid=1181070532
RD 2024/04/18
AB MRI  has  become  the  examination  of  choice  for  imaging  the  spine  canal  and  its  contents.  While  common,  diseases  involving  the  spine  may  mimic  each  other,  necessitating  imaging  such  as  MRI  for  diagnosis  and  patient  management.  When  considering  performing  and  interpreting  imaging  of  the  spine,  it  is  important  to  first  understand  the  clinical  context.  The  most  common  symptom  is  back  pain.  Although  back  pain  is  epidemic  and  associated  with  great  disability,  back  pain  without  neurologic  compromise  is  usually  not  an  emergency.  Fever  or  history  of  malignancy  should  raise  suspicion  and  urgency.  Patients  with  spine  disorders  may  also  present  with  radiculopathy  and  myelopathy.  Radiculopathy  results  from  mechanical  compression  or  irritation  of  a  spinal  nerve,  often  within  a  lateral  recess  or  neural  foramina.  This  results  in  sensory  deficits  and  muscle  group  weakness  in  the  part  of  the  body  served  by  that  nerve.  On  the  other  hand,  myelopathy  is  caused  by  mechanical  compression  or  intrinsic  lesions  of  the  spinal  cord.  Classic  symptoms  of  myelopathy  include  bladder  and  bowel  incontinence,  spasticity,  weakness,  and  sensory  deficits.  As  the  spinal  cord  has  limited  healing  ability,  an  acute  myelopathy  is  an  emergency  and  should  prompt  urgent  imaging,  preferably  with  MRI  given  its  superior  evaluation  of  the  spinal  canal  and  cord.