MRI vs Low Back Pain

Have you ever been told that you might need an MRI for your low back pain? It is a very common test done with low back pain, but what does imaging actually do in the treatment of low back pain?

Below is a screenshot from an interesting article looking at the correlation between significant findings on an MRI with actual back pain!

If you scroll down you can see that there are several spinal changes that show up on an MRI in individuals of all ages that DO NOT actually have any low back pain. These changes can be things like bulging discs, herniated discs, etc. After performing a systematic review they concluded that many of these changes can result from normal aging and it does not always correlate to pain or pathology!

So what does that mean for the individual? You are NOT your MRI !!!

As physical therapists we always get patients coming to us for low back pain and they immediately chalk up their pain to some type of bulging disc that they found on an MRI several years ago. They say it almost as if to say they don't actually think their current pain will get better because of what they saw on an image of their body a very long time ago.

When dealing with back pain, imaging is just one part of the equation. It is important to look at the entire system because looking at just one picture will never tell the whole story. Getting great care and having a good team behind you will help you reach your goals and live an active and healthy life!

Reference: Brinjikji W, Luetmer PH, Comstock B, et al. Systematic literature review of imaging features of spinal degeneration in asymptomatic populations. AJNR Am J Neuroradiol. 2015;36(4):811-816. doi:10.3174/ajnr.A4173