Mri Imaging Lower Lumbar How to Read

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If you're having lower back pain, your md may order an MRI (magnetic resonance imaging). During an MRI, you lie on a flat bed that slides into a large tube. Then, a powerful magnet and radio waves create detailed images of your spinal column. Your doctor uses those images to figure out what may be causing your back hurting so they tin recommend handling. While you can't diagnose your own status just by looking at your MRI, if you know how to read it yourself you can explain the issues to others.^[1]

1. i

   Ask for a copy of your MRI written report and images. When you get your MRI done, the radiologist may simply transport the written report and images to your doctor for review. All the same, you're entitled to a copy if you lot inquire for ane.^[2]

   • Typically, the radiologist will requite you images on a CD-ROM that you tin can view on a computer. If you don't have a computer with a CD drive, inquire the radiologist if they tin e-mail you digital files so you can view them.
   • The report identifies all of the abnormalities the radiologist detected on your images. The radiologist may also have put markers (typically colored arrows) on the images to point out each of these abnormalities.

2. 2

   Identify the blazon of MRI used in each image. At a minimum, you'll accept a sagittal lumbar MRI, which is a vertical paradigm that looks at your spine from the side. You may too accept axial images, which look at a cantankerous-section of an individual disc. Recall of these as similar to slicing a tree log in sections to look at the rings on the tree. Each of these uses one of 2 imaging techniques:^[3]

   • T₁-weighted images show greater contrast between tissues, which allows your physician to more accurately diagnose disc herniation. T₁-weighted images are used for sagittal MRIs but not typically for centric MRIs.
   • T₂-weighted images brighten the cerebrospinal fluid of your spinal canal, making it easier for your medico to see different types of infection that might be missed past a T_one-weighted image. T_two-weighted images are used for both sagittal and axial MRIs.

   Tip: If you lot see a bright, white line running down your spine on a sagittal MRI, you're looking at a T₂-weighted epitome. The white line is the cerebrospinal fluid of your spinal canal, which holds your fretfulness.

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   Use the sagittal image to view your entire lumbar spine. With the sagittal image, yous get a ameliorate overall picture of your lumbar spine. You tin identify vertebrae that are out of alignment or discs that are abnormal.^[4]

   • The sagittal epitome is typically the easiest one to empathize, and you will probable be able to easily orient the epitome to your body. If yous run across an abnormality on the sagittal image, you can hands pinpoint more or less where on your body that abnormality is located.

4. 4

   Look at axial images to view individual discs. If one or more than of your discs show an abnormality, yous may have axial images that show that disc in greater detail. With an axial paradigm, you're looking at the top of the disc equally seen from above.^[v]

   • Y'all tin can tell more than about the size of the nerve canals past looking at an axial image. Your doctor may use an centric image to get a clearer picture of a herniated disc.

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1. i

   Count the vertebrae of your lumbar spine. The vertebrae in your spine are divided into 5 regions. The lumbar region, consisting of 5 vertebrae, is the everyman region of your spine with movable vertebrae. In the 2 lower regions, the sacrum and the coccyx, the vertebrae are fused together.^{[half dozen]}

   • The 5 vertebrae of your lumbar spine are numbered from one to 5, starting at the top and going down. You can count them down on your sagittal MRI.
   • Medically, the vertebrae are labeled with an "50" indicating the lumbar region, followed by the number. For example, the second vertebra from the top of your lumbar spine is called "L2."

   Tip: A sagittal prototype may also evidence the thoracic vertebrae to a higher place the lumbar section of your spine. To correctly identify the lumbar vertebrae, it may be easier to count up from the bottom.

2. 2

   Label the discs between the vertebrae. Each of the vertebrae of your lumbar spine is separated past a disc that acts as a cushion for the vertebrae. Your discs keep the bones of your spinal column from rubbing against each other when you movement. They are labeled using the number of the vertebrae above and below them, separated by a hyphen.^[7]

   • For instance, the disc between the 3rd lumbar vertebra and the fourth lumbar vertebra is referred to as L3-iv. Looking at your sagittal prototype, you should be able to determine the name for each of the discs in the lumbar region of your spine.
   • The disc under L5 sits between the last vertebrae of the lumbar region and the first vertebrae of your sacrum, and then it is referred to every bit L5-S1.

3. 3

   Locate the spinal canal that holds nerves and fluid. Behind the column of vertebrae and discs, you'll see a long canal that holds nerves and spinal fluid. It will either be bright white or dull gray depending on whether you accept a T_one or T_two image.^[8]

   • If y'all have normal alignment, the canal volition be solid, as though you could draw a directly line down the vertebrae and discs of your spinal column. The line naturally curves at the lower end of the lumbar region.
   • Your spinal cord technically ends before the lumbar region of your spine. However, this canal notwithstanding contains nerves that keep down into your legs. At each level of the lumbar spine, a nerve splits off from the spine and goes to a specific function of your legs or anxiety.

4. four

   Zoom in on the sagittal image to view the nerves. The nerves are probable also small for you to run into on the sagittal image, but if yous zoom in, you'll see the modest, keyhole-shaped canals on both sides of the spinal cavalcade. These canals are called "foramen" and let the nerves to pass out of the spine and down to the legs.^[nine]

   • Each of the foramen should be about the same size. If y'all accept a herniated disc, one may announced smaller than the others in the location of the herniation.

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1. 1

   Enquire your doc to see images of a normal spine. Your doctor likely has years of experience interpreting MRIs. However, information technology may be easier for yous to see abnormalities in your own spine if you can compare your images to the images of a normal spine. Your physician may accept images of a normal spine that they can share with you.^[10]

   • If your doctor doesn't have whatsoever images to share with you, search the internet for "normal lumbar spine MRI." You should be able to discover many images that you can compare to yours.

2. 2

   Evaluate the shape of your vertebrae. Each of the v vertebral bodies should take a generally square or rectangular shape. They'll also likely be of about the same size and thickness. Any differences could betoken a fracture or loss of bone density.^[xi]

   • For instance, if you take a vertebral body that looks more than triangular than rectangular, that indicates a fracture.
   • If you encounter a vertebra that has a pointy cease that sticks out into the spinal culvert, this is probable a bone spur. These form as a relatively normal role of the aging process, only can be painful if they intrude too much into the canal, leaving little space for the nerves.

3. 3

   Compare the thickness of your discs. Normally, your discs will be of more or less uniform size and similar shape. A normal disc wouldn't protrude beyond the edges of the upper or lower vertebrae. Y'all might call back of the disc as sandwiched between ii vertebrae. If you had a relatively neat sandwich, the food inside wouldn't stick out from the edges of the breadstuff. ^[12]

   • A disc that is thinner than the others is "desiccated." Disc desiccation refers to a loss of height or thickness in the disc and is a natural product of aging (this is why people get shorter as they get older). All the same, if yous have too much desiccation, your vertebrae may grind together when you movement.
   • A disc that protrudes from the sides of the vertebrae is herniated. If the herniation creates too little space for nerves in the spinal canal, this can lead to pain and discomfort.

   Tip: Y'all'll likely meet more desiccation at the L4-v and L5-S1 levels, since these are the most mobile levels of the lumbar region of the spine.

4. 4

   Draw a line down the vertebrae to bank check your alignment. Looking at the sagittal epitome, the edges of your vertebrae flowing down your spine should be even if you have normal alignment. If any of the vertebrae are protruding beyond the others, so that the line isn't shine, this may exist the cause of some of your symptoms.^[13]

   • Your spine has a natural curve at L4 and L5, so it won't be a directly line all the way downwardly. However, the line you draw (including the bend) should however be smooth and even.
   • Information technology's easier to come across this if you lot're looking at a T_two paradigm, in which the spinal culvert volition be a brilliant white compared to the rest of the paradigm.

5. five

   Wait at the space available for your nerves. Centric MRIs allow you to see more detail of the nerve canal and nerves traveling downward to your legs. If you have a protruding or herniated disc, your nerves may not have enough space. When this happens, your doctor volition say that the nerve is "impinged." The nerves at each level of your lumbar spine travel to a different part of your legs. If you lot take an impinged nerve, y'all may have pain, weakness, or numbness in the corresponding part of your body:^[14]

   • L1 and L2 fretfulness: lower pelvic area, simply in a higher place the groin and genitals
   • L3 nerves: front of your thighs
   • L4 nerves: shins and insteps
   • L5 nerves: tops of your feet and large toes
   • S1 nerves: outsides and bottoms of your feet
   • S2-S5 fretfulness: genitals, buttocks, and rectal surface area

6. six

   Check for signs of disks pressing into the spinal culvert. Sometimes wear and tear on the lumbar vertebrae can cause spinal disks to bulge into the spinal canal. This condition, chosen spinal stenosis, causes a narrowing of the space inside your spinal column, which can put pressure on the nerves in your spinal cord.^[fifteen] Wait for narrow areas in the dural sac, or the tube that surrounds your spinal cord.

   • To meet the criteria for spinal stenosis, a sagittal MRI should show a dural sac diameter of less than x mm at the point of compression.^[sixteen]
   • Spinal stenosis is dissimilar from foraminal stenosis, which is a narrowing of the holes in the vertebrae that the spinal fretfulness leave through.

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• Radiologists are required past police force to notation all abnormalities in their MRI reports. Withal, information technology'southward possible that none of these abnormalities is the cause of your problems. Some abnormalities are harmless and practise not crusade medical issues, only the radiologist has to report them anyway. It's essential to review your results with a medical professional so that they tin tell yous whether whatsoever of the results are cause for concern.

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