An MRI scan creates detailed pictures of your spine. It can pick up most injuries that you have had in your spine or changes that happen with aging. Even small problems or changes that are not the cause of your current back pain are picked up. These findings rarely change how your provider first treats you.
Your doctor might recommend an MRI if he or she suspects that your low back pain is caused by something more serious than muscle strain. This may be the case if: Your history and physical examination show signs of a serious problem, such as a fracture, tumours, infection, or nerve damage.
A physical exam that includes questions about your medical history is enough to diagnose and treat most cases. Since most low back pain gets better on its own, it's often best to wait and see if you get better with time. An MRI is helpful if your doctor suspects that disease or nerve damage is causing your pain.
Why might your doctor recommend an MRI? An MRI can find tumors, damage to bones and nerves, and narrowing of the spinal canal that pushes on the spinal cord. The test can also show if a herniated disc is putting pressure on nerves.
The bottom line is that not all pain is able to be detected on an x-ray or MRI. That does not mean that there is nothing there that needs to be treated or diagnosed. In fact, it means that it is possibly a precursor to something going really wrong and then eventually needing surgery because it eventually winds up torn.
MRI is the most effective way to diagnose problems within any joint and the image sensitivity makes it the most accurate imaging tool available in detecting arthritis and other inflammatory changes. MRI is also a key diagnostic tool when patients have lower back pain, radiating pain or hip/groin pain.
MRIs create images using a radiofrequency magnetic field, a technique that clearly shows pinched nerves, disc disease, and inflammation or infections in the spinal tissues. MRI is usually the preferred imaging for pinched nerves.
Imaging studies are usually needed to diagnose the cause of sciatic nerve pain. An MRI of the lumbar spine will show many causes of low back pain and sciatica, including disc herniations, facet arthritis, and lumbar spinal stenosis. Digital x-rays and CT scans may also be used to diagnose the cause of sciatica.
MRIs are able to provide in-depth information on not only the spinal cord but individual nerves as well. There is a good chance that an MRI should be able to detect a pinched nerve. This can confirm the suspicions of a doctor.
The magnetic fields that change with time create loud knocking noises which may harm hearing if adequate ear protection is not used. They may also cause peripheral muscle or nerve stimulation that may feel like a twitching sensation. The radiofrequency energy used during the MRI scan could lead to heating of the body.
MRI for Back Pain. Like x-rays, CT scans are usually quicker than MRIs. CT scans are the preferred tool for diagnosing severe injuries that need immediate attention, and they are also helpful in locating tumors. Typically, CT scans are better at scanning bone images than MRIs.
Preparation Instructions:
Please do not wear jewelry, hairpins, or any metal objects. Glasses, dentures, hearing aids, and watches will be removed at the time of the examination; you will be provided a locker. IF YOUR MRI REQUIRES CONTRAST: do not eat or drink anything 4 hours prior to exam.
Furthermore, MRI can also detect subclinical muscle inflammation such as in amyopathic DM (34), in which up to 100% of patients have muscle inflammation on WB MRI, or in amyopathic ASyS patients where muscular inflammation is frequently observed (28).
The test most often lasts 30 to 60 minutes, but may take longer.
An MRI is the best type of imaging for looking at tissue. Your physician may order an MRI on the damaged muscle to find or learn more about your injury. This type of muscle tear imaging can pinpoint the location of even the smallest muscle strains and determine whether a partial or complete strain has occurred.
Partial damage to the nerve may demonstrate weakness of knee flexion (bending), weakness of foot movements, difficulty bending the foot inward (inversion), or bending the foot down (plantar flexion). A person's reflexes may be abnormal, with weak or absent ankle-jerk reflex.
However, a possible complication of sciatica is chronic (long-term) pain. If there's serious damage to an affected nerve, chronic muscle weakness, such as a “drop foot,” might happen. That's when nerve damage causes numbness in your foot, which makes normal walking difficult or even impossible.
Numbness or decreased sensation in the area supplied by the nerve. Sharp, aching or burning pain, which may radiate outward. Tingling, pins and needles sensations (paresthesia) Muscle weakness in the affected area.
MRI scans use radio waves to produce images of soft tissue like muscles and ligaments, in addition to bones. Because of this, it's possible for an MRI to show nerve damage as well as other issues that might be causing pain in your body.
The key characteristics of inflammatory back pain are: Early onset (typically under 45 years old) Localized pain in the lower back and/or buttocks. Chronic pain, meaning pain that lasts longer than 3 months.
Areas of new, active inflammation in the brain become white on T1 scans with contrast. The contrast that goes into your vein for the MRI seeps out of leaky blood vessels in the brain where there is active inflammation. The spots (called lesions) on the scan are areas of active inflammation.
Similarly Cheung et al. reported MRI detected degenerative disc changes in 40% of patients younger than 40 years and 90% of patients in the age group 50–55 years [13]. Imaging plays an important role in the diagnosis, pre-surgical evaluation and follow up of patients with LBP.