Keywords:
Musculoskeletal spine, Neuroradiology spine, MR, Education
Authors:
B. Peters, J. Van Goethem, P. M. Parizel; Antwerp/BE
DOI:
10.26044/ecr2019/C-3160
Conclusion
The craniocervical ligaments in asymptomatic adults show a variable degree of signal and contour changes.
These changes are more common in elderly adults compared to young adults,
showing a clear relationship between age and degeneration of the craniocervical ligaments.
High grade ligamentous lesions,
with partial rupture or complete rupture of the CCJ ligaments were extremely rare in asymptomatic patients.
Knowledge of degenerative changes to the craniocervical ligaments is important in order to be able to differentiate degenerative ligamentous changes and posttraumatic changes in patients with WAD or other trauma to the CCJ.
We postulate that these changes in asymptomatic controls can be due to normal aging but also due to microtrauma that were not recollected by the asymptomatic volunteers on questioning.