Cervical Spine MRI Findings in Patients Presenting With Neck Pain and Radiculopathy

The peculiar position and functions of the cervical spine and its intervertebral discs in the human body make it prone to degenerative changes and other functional disorders and Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) is the gold standard in adequately depicting these changes. This retrospective study aimed at showing the type and distribution of pathological changes and abnormalities in the cervical spines of patients who presented with symptoms of neck pain and radiculopathy. Data of 170 patients who had an MRI of the cervical spine over a 60 month period were retrieved and reviewed from the MRI database. Excluded from this study were patients whose symptoms were not neck pain or radiculopathy. Twenty-one patients did not meet these criteria by symptoms. The images were acquired in axial, sagittal and coronal planes using T1 weighted (T1W), T2 weighted (T2W) sequences and evaluated from C1/C2 to C7/T1 by signal intensity, posterior and anterior disc protrusion. The data were analyzed using SPSS version 16. The results show that cervical spondylosis occurred as a single finding in 44.4% of patients and in combination with disc prolapse in 41.9%, making it the most frequent finding overall. Patients aged 45-54 years were the highest imaged though the percentage of abnormal findings increased linearly with age. The most affected disc level was at C4/C5 (27.7%). Fourteen (9.4%) patients had a normal MRI result. Cervical spondylosis and degenerative disc disease are common in this locality.