MRI Results received - please help translate jargon!
 

Hi there

I have just received my MRI scan results for my lower back & I have no idea what it means!

I injured my back deadlifting in the gym over a year ago, so the lower back problem has been present for some time. I am otherwise in full health, 25 years old.

Findings of MRI are as follows:

"The conus is sited at the T12-L1 disk level.
The visualised cord and cauda return normal signal.
Normal visualised vertebral marrow signal.
The canal is capacious throughout the lumbar and sacral levels.

Bulky moderate multilevel facet OA present and this is particularly pronounced at the L4-L5 and L5-S1 levels.

The upper 2 lumbar disks are slightly dehydrated but there is no compromise seen to nerve roots at these levels.
The L3-L4 disk is dehydrated with a broad-based disk bulge and focal central protrusion which is small but effaces thecal sac.
No definite compromise seen at this level however.

The L4-L5 disc is dehydrated witha broad-based disk bulge. This accompanies bulky facet OA particularly on the left side narrowing lateral recess and there is some mild effacement of the left L5 nerve root in this region.
However, there is a moderate left foraminal stenosis in which the foraminal L4 root on the left side does appear to be impinged to some degree. This is predominantly due to bulky facet osteophytosis.

The L5-S1 disk is reasonably well-preserved. There is sacralisation of the L5 vertebral body. Focal high signal in the pars on each side may reflect some low-grade stress.

Conclusion: evolving degenerative changes within the facets and lower lumbar disks as detailed above. Moderate to"

(The report literally finishes like that... not sure what the "moderate to" was about to refer to.)

Any doctors on the forum?? Can you advise??

Kind regards,

Jack :confused:

Hello & Welcome!!
 

Welcome to Neurotalk--
 

--and it actually seems like there should have been another few lines on that report's impression/conclusion, and it got cut off--or perhaps there was another page.

The rest of the report, though, actually isn't that jargon-y as these things go. Overall, you seem to have some arthritis in your spine, and have developed some bony growths that are probably compressing at least the left nerve root at the L5 level (the last lumbar vertebrae--"moderate left foraminal stenosis in which the foraminal L4 root on the left side does appear to be impinged to some degree. This is predominantly due to bulky facet osteophytosis"--the L4 nerve root is between the L4 and L5 vertebrae, the foramen is the space the root passes through, and osteophytosis is bone spurring, which may be arthritic in nature or may represent some injury which has healed and caused thickening of the bony prominence into the foraminal space--not uncommon among weightlifters, by the way).

Do you have lower back or left leg symptoms?

"Bulky moderate facet OA" refers to bony osteoarthritis.

And, you do have somewhat of a disc bulge between the L4/L5 vertebrae. This may contribute to the foraminal narrowing. You also have one at the level above--L3/L4--but this does not seem to be compressing anything at this time.

These kinds of spine changes are not common among people your age, though almost all of us get them as we get older--but they are more common among athletes, especially weighlifters.