Originally Posted by peterpan

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.