MRI Cervical
 

I was involved in a pretty severe car accident where I was hit by a drunk driver. It happened May 15, 2009 and I just recently had an MRI done. I received the results along with my neuro doc and he did not mention anything was wrong. So I am open to someone else to helping me understand the content.

Comparison: None

Technique: An MRI of the cervical spine was obtained utilizing sagittal T1, sagittal T2, and selected axial gradient echo images without the administration of intravenous contrast.

Findings: There is straightening if the normal cervical largest cyst. Disc desiccation is seen from C2-3 through C6-7. Disc space narrowing is seen at C5-6,C6-7, and C7-T1. tiny anterior osteophytes are present at multiple levels. The vertebral body heights and alignment are well preserved. no signal abnormality is seen within visualized marrow cavities. The visualized portion of the spianal cord appears normal. No soft tissue masses are seen.

From C2-3 to C4-5 the disc. thecal sac, and neural foramina are normal.

At C5-6 small posterior marginal osteophytes are present. The AP diameter of the thecal sac and the neural foramen are normal.

At C6-7 and C7-T1 the disc, thecal sac, and neural foramen are normal.

Impression: Minimal Degenerative Disc Disease at C5-6 with no central spinal canal stenosis or neuroforaminal narrowing seen.



So with all of this info CAN SOMEONE PLEASE HELP ME FIGURE THIS OUT!

IF it were me? I'd....
 

make an appointment or call the doc who ordered the test and ASK QUESTIONS! I've not been in your situation, but, I've found that if I ASK, for explantations/clarity etc. I can get it...but be sure to keep a notepad in hand and write faster than you've ever done before! It's doubly hard to make notes and process the info at the same time to ask more questions! So ending any visit/call, leave the door open w/a Can I ask you more later? Once I've processed this all? Likely the doc SHOULD say yes... Any which way. Be sure you've got that copy of the 'report' in your hands and bring a copy of that to any other docs you mite go and see.
NONE of anything neuro is fun when it HURTS! I'd check out the 'spinal forums' and see if they can help you more...
Follow your instincts as to what you know is wrong, or at least...not right! Keep faith, read and learn... I know folks here and elsewhere, but mostly that INSTINCT saved my life from something likely worse.
:hug:!'s for the interim - j

I'm not sure what this means - "straightening if the normal cervical largest cyst"??

Basically this part says the overall opinion of the person that reads the MRI.
[Impression: Minimal Degenerative Disc Disease at C5-6 with no central spinal canal stenosis or neuroforaminal narrowing seen.]

Degenerative Disc Disease = DDD for short
small osteophytes & tiny anterior osteophytes = I think fairly normal for middle age - I have some & my sis does too

What is your age?
What symptoms or pain are you having?
If you can describe them and the locations we might be able to help from that angle.

Sometimes the cause of the real pain & symptoms won't show up on the MRI - especially if soft tissue injuries.

I am only 29 i have had so much pain in my neck and headaches out of this world. Along with my neck injury i also fractured my T3 and T5. Most of the pain in my neck is located at the right side.

I just turned 29. I have great pain in my neck mostly on the right side along with headaches that are out of this world. I also fractured my T3 and T5. I went in and had steroid injections in my neck Friday and my neck is so painful I can barely hold my head up. I am scared that I aggrevated something more severe.

i made a mistake it was sraighting of the normal cervical largest cyst

I've heard of straightening of the cervical curve, but I don't know about the cyst part of it. :confused:

Hopefully someone here will have better knowledge on that part.

Was the accident a whiplash type or did you hit your head, neck, shoulders?

Is the pain in the actual neck vertebra area or in the muscles?

You are probably having some major muscle spasms, w/possible trigger points. PT / massage modalities should help with some of it.

does your chiro do c1/c2 adjustments? also called upper cervical, atlas /axis?
PS
sorry I got your post mixed up with another similar one.
Have you considered an expert chiropractor?

All it says is your discs are drying out, and you have bone spurs - that's what osteophytes are. Degenerative disc disease is just a fancy word for drying out of discs. Everyone gets that as they grow older, but some of us have pain with it. It can also cause the discs to smash down, and bulge or herniate.

I don't have a clue what that largest cyst is all about. That doesn't make a lick of sense to me and I've been reading MRI's for years! I guess you'll have to ask your doc.

Best of luck! I hope your problems subside. God bless. Hugs, Lee

I have not been to a chiro my insurance does not cover that. However I am going to a pain clinic who has started doing cervical injections. The pain is not from the muscles but deeper down. When I get active I start to hurt so bad and I get this pulsating feeling from the base of my skull to my lower back. It almost feels like my spinal cord is being squeezed. The accident was more of a whipblash i guess u could say. I was driving and i was rear ended. I was hit so hard it ripped my driver seat out and put me in the back seat. Im just thankful to be alive!

Linda, do you know what TYPE of injections the pain doc was doing? There are trigger point, facet and selective nerve root. I have had them all. And just wanted to add it is not uncommon for pain to increase after an injection. Also, how many did he do?

Can you still make a ins claim against the driver that rear ended you?
I don't know what time frame requirements there are, you might ask a atty about it.
Then their ins would be paying for your treatment or at least you'd probably get some settlement monies..


But since you go hit that hard , something probably did get out of alignment, and most MDs won't address that part of things.
An advanced PT or osteopathic dr might.
But logically to me until things are back in alignment the injections are a temporary fix -it becomes a circle of pain, injection, pain returns, another injection... unless they address the real cause of the problem with very good PT also.IMO

All I was told is that is was cervical injections. I do know that they used idocain and steriods. He did three on each side of my neck so a total of 6. I was in so much pain the day after I couldnt even hold my head up and had to go to the er. I went back and saw him again yesterday and I was told that that reaction is very uncommon and they were going to repeat them again 3 more times. Im a little uneasy but I dont want to not do them if I will get relief in the long run

MRI results
 

Hello, and I am so sorry you are having cervical spine issues. I know that disk space narrowing can be a serious thing, depending how much it affects your neruo system. Are you having neurological symptoms, tingling in your arms, shocking sensations, loss of muscle and strength. You neuro specialist can determine musle and strength loss. Are you dropping things? Your doctor will be able to see just how much narrowing there is from that report. I think they make a determination from the evaluation of both the MRI and how you present to them with what symptoms. I was told that I had severe narrowing, and it was with all the above symptoms. I had cervical fussion C-3-7 seven weeks ago. I was also herniated. I hope you can get your doctors opinion soon. I wish you the best of luck. ginnie :)

I have major issues with my legs feet arms and hands with tingling and falling asleep when I lay on my back. What does space narrowing actiually mean? I have tons of migrains and just pain in my neck in general. Sometimes I just feal like its on fire.

Im not even sure what space narrowing means. I had a dr apt with my neuro on monday but unfortuantly my grandpa has fallen very ill and i am staying tht e hospital with him. they did finally change my meds to embra 20-.08. i have been told that it is a type of morophine and i take it at night. also he gave me percocet 5/500 for the break through pain. has anyone ever heard of embra before. ive looked it up but really dont understand the meaning. i even asked my grandfathers nurses and they had never heard of it before.

I have had many first they did trigger points on my back injury around my t3 and t5 fracture sites. then they did a nerve block on my right shoulder. as for my neck they have done a round of 2 times each time they used lidocain then used steroids as the injections. they changed my meds from lorcets to percocets to embeda 20-.08. with percocets 5/500. for the break through pain. i asked my grandfathers nurses about the new med embeda and they said they had no clue but ive looked it up and it says that it is morophine extended release. i only am to take one at night but i really dont see the affects of it yet. anyone every had this med? if so can u give me some ideas of the best way to get more relief. and also what does the 20-.08 mean? thanks a bunch for the help

Embeda info

http://www.drugs.com/embeda.html
http://www.drugwatch.com/embeda/

Yes I did make a claim against the driver. The saddess part of the whole deal is that he worked for my personal Dr. Needless to say he was fired from that job. All the insurance he has was the min. and it was only 25,000. I haave tricare but in return u have to settle with tricare for a certain percentage. Then paying the lawyer I sure didnt get much. I have been passed around from dr to dr. First I was sent to and orthopedic dr about my shoulder cause I had shoulder pain. Then when I had an MRI of my shoulder it captured just the top of my t3 and showed that fracture. So then I was sent back to my regular dr who then sent me to have a full mri of my throasic spine. That showed up that I had a fracture to the t3 and t5. So I went about 6 months with no treatment for my back. I was finally sent to pt where I was refused to be treated because they believed I had a severe neck injury. So here I am 19 months later finally being treated or what i hope is the beginning to the right road of recovery!

Your symptoms sound alot like mine and I was diagnosed with a Chiari Malformation. It is herniation of cerebellar tonsils into the spinal canal. It is typically congenital but can be caused or made worse by trauma, especially whiplash injury.

i believe it was a common of selective nerve root and facet. they have done 12 now

I was reading your note's and I noticed a cyst on your spinal cord. Has anyone said you might have Syringomyelia? I was told in 92 that I had Syringomyelia which is cyst or tumor's in your spinal cord.
Sharon:)

No I have never been told that. It seems that noone wants to discuss my MRI results. I have brought it up to my Neuro dr and my pain dr and noone has been wanting to discuss it.

I think it should read "straightening of the normal cervical lordosis." It is an otherwise relatively normal report bar a few degenerative issues. Multiple studies have shown that MRI is not a good imaging modality to "prove" pain associated with cervical accelleration-decelleration injuries. For example, subligamentous failure (stretched/severely sprained ligament) looks entirely normal on MRI. BTW, 89% of the time, reduced or reversed lordosis is associated with a history of trauma.

I am all for a chiro. Get an expert in whiplash associated disorders at www.srisd.com

Cervical MRI explained
 

LindaWing, To be honest, I am a doctor of Chiropractic. I look at and explain MRI reports all the time. It is always O.K. to ask for the results of any tests and ask your doctors to explain anything you don't understand. (your friends and the internet are full of mis-information).

In general, your MRI is basically normal and the radiologist is just listing normal findings in regards to the position and condition of bones, nerves, discs etc. As for the exact meanings of all this terminology, you can ask your doctor (but it takes a lot of time to explain), research the internet for anatomy terms, or trust his advice and don't stress over this MRI report.

To end the confusion, I am 100% sure that the first sentence should read "There is straightening of the normal cervical curve" There had to be an typographical error in transcription, it makes not sense, is out of usual order, and the cyst would be mentioned in the "impression" section again.

Trying to be brief, the numbers are anatomical code for the location of the finding. "C" is used when referring to the cervical region or neck. "T" is used for the thoracic region (ribs attach here), and "L" is lumbar. The numbers following the letter refer to what vertebra in that region counted from the top down. The next term is "Disc dessication". You can think of that as the dehydration of the fibrous and gelatinous spacers located between spinal bones formally known as intervertebral discs. They dehydrate as a consequence of long standing compressional stress such as that from gravity. This process is called degenerative disc disease or osteoarthritis and is accelerated with additional stress such as from abnormal function, injury, muscle spasms, poor posture, nutrition, lack of water intake, etc. The terms "tiny anterior osteophytes", is a descriptive term for, in your case, the small little spurs along the top or bottom of a vertebra (spinal bone) that result from stresses on the spine. It too is part of degenerative disc disease. (The cause is known as "wolf's law" and as tension increases on the attachment points of the disc, the bone remodels, laying calcium in the area making a spur.) Over time, if the cause is not corrected, they can grow to be very large. Yours are "tiny" and this is excellent. It means this is the earliest stages of osteoarthritis and the prognosis is better.....

I am going on too long for this venue so I will end here with the advice to always ask questions and demand answers. It is your body and you deserve to know. In my humble opinion, if this were one of my patient's MRI report, I would say this is good news. I wish you well.

Peterpan,

Couldn't agree with your post anymore! I'm a DABCO (and gone through a C5-6 fusion, shoulder recontsruction leading to brachial plexopathy and CRPS), I can relate!

Take care