TY - CHAP M1 - Book, Section TI - Spine MRI A1 - Manning, Paul A1 - Handwerker, Jason A2 - Tehranzadeh, Jamshid PY - 2021 T2 - Basic Musculoskeletal Imaging, 2e 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. SN - PB - McGraw-Hill Education CY - New York, NY Y2 - 2024/04/19 UR - accessphysiotherapy.mhmedical.com/content.aspx?aid=1181070532 ER -