Clinical evaluation of MRI for lumbar spinal disease

Thirty-two patients were examined to determine the clinical usefulness of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) of the lumbar spine. MRI using a resistive magnet at 0.1 Tesla was compared with computed tomography (CT) and myelography. A saturation recovery (SR) technique with repetition time (TR) of 500 msec was used in all cases. There were 19 cases with disk herniation, 5 with canal stenosis, 2 with spondylosis deformans and 6 with other suspected disease. MRI showed the protrusion of disk, displacement of epidural fat and degenerative change of disk more clearly than CT and myelography. Of the 12 herniated disks, 8 disks were clearly shown and one was not detected by MRI. In some cases, herniated disk could not be differentiated from disk bulging. With further technical advance, MRI is likely to become the initial procedure for evaluation of lumbar spinal disease. (author)