Sekhar Upadhyayla, M.D. on Using MRI's to Determine Cause of Back Pain

We like to have documented correlation with what we call imaging studies. Imaging studies are a wide variety of studies, including X-rays. CAT scans, PET scans, and of course, MRIs, Since our practice is predominantly spine, everything from the cervical or the neck, all the way down to the tailbone.  The advantages of an MRI include the fact that there is no radiation involved. MRI’s do have some disadvantages. Because it generates a magnetic field, patients who have magnetically receptive metals in their body cannot be examined.

Also, structure does not always follow function. You can have a perfectly looking MRI and a patient can have horrific back pain and things you would not expect. And the converse is true as well. You can have MRI’s that look hideous and you wonder how could this person is tolerating day to day life. He can have complete degeneration of one of his lumbar discs, where one bone is rubbing right next to another, causing a narrowing of the canal and compressing the nerve, but the patient is still functioning and walking.