Keywords:
Education and training, Equipment, Diagnostic procedure, MR, Neuroradiology spine
Authors:
H. Sasani1, M. Vural2, M. SASANI2; 1TEKİRDAG/TR, 2Istanbul/TR
DOI:
10.26044/ecr2019/C-0019
Aims and objectives
Degenerative lumbar spinal stenosis (DLSS) is the narrowing of the central vertebral canal that compresses spinal nerves in the dural sac.
Lumbar spinal canal stenosis may cause a degree of neurogenic claudication.
Supine magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) is routinely used to evaluate patients with suspected DLSS.
However,
MRI findings sometimes correlate poorly with neurological findings or patient complaints.
The assessment of these patients may be insufficient [1].
Axial-loaded lumbar MRI in supine (recumbent) position, may improve diagnostic accuracy.
Using a non-magnetic axial compression device to apply the axial load to the lumbar spine,
morphological changes of the spinal canal in the standing position can be simulated during MRI examination [2].
Previous studies have shown that axial loading MRI causes a significant decrease in the width of the dural sac [2,3].
We propose that lumbar supine MRI with axial loading,
can show significant lumbar spinal stenosis in patients with neurogenic claudication who have not significant stenosis in routine (without loading) MRI.
In this study,
we evaluated the effectiveness of axial-loaded MRI in patients with suspected lumbar spinal stenosis.