The relationship between symptoms and abnormal magnetic resonance images of the lumbar spine.

Abstract

The researcher, being a student radiographer observed that low back pain and lower extremity pain are common complaints amongst the Maltese population. The researcher also observed that many patients with low back problems were being referred for a magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) investigation of their lumbar spine. However, in previous literature it has been reported that differences may exist between the patient symptoms and the observed MR images. This research study was designed to observe any relationship between clinical symptoms, age, gender and physical activity/occupation and MRI findings in patients attending for an MRI investigation of their lumbar spine. This was done at the MRI suite in the Imaging Department at St. James Hospital. As all the patients that presented in this study had an intervertebral disc herniation queried, results could only be drawn regarding this abnormality. From the results it was evident that there was overall agreement between clinical symptoms and MRI findings. However, MRI findings not reported in the clinical information were also observed. Therefore, MRI findings should be interpreted in light of the full clinical picture. No conclusive results could be drawn for the relationship between MRI findings and age, gender and physical activity/occupation because the population size used was far too small. However, it has been observed that patients between 30-39 years of age attended most frequently for an MRI of their lumbar spine. The majority of the attending patients were males and considered themselves having a high physical activity lifestyle.