please help with my mri image...

[Tyrone]

Does anyone see a problem with l4/l5 disc? I was wondering why the t1 ax stack ax has a dark color around the nerve? Can this be a disc that is slowly oozing? I am not sure if the nerve canal is filling up putting pressure on the nerve? i am suffering from severe groin pain on my left side, with shooting, and tingly pain down both quadricep and inner theigh muscles.

[mmglobal]

Can you post the T2's?

What are your symptoms?

[Tyrone]

.... Thank you for responding. My symptoms include a awful pain in my left groin, hip area that hurts really bad when i walk. The pain also radiates down my quad and the inner theigh with tingly sharp (what i would guess nerve pain)? After seeing a orthapedic doctor he reffered me to a neurologist, because the mri was fine????? and he thinks it might be a nerve that the mri did not pick up. I am just soo weary on trusting the one doctor that read the mri. I went to a neurologist which put me on prednisone and prescribed physical therapy. I am insistent that p/t is making me worse!! Since i started p/t i now have the same pain in my right hip and theigh. Today i took a EMG and cannot wait to see the results. If it comes back negative i do not know which way to turn?? i also have mri of both hips if anyone is familar with reading them i would greatly appreciate.... thank you

[Jim M2]

chirogeek.com has dermatome mappings. Unfortunately they don't show any mapping to the groin. I have a vague memory of seeing one of the Sacrum levels mapping to the groin area.

I don't see anything obvious jumping out of your MRIs but imaging does not always reveal the problem(s).

Please take my ramblings with a grain of salt. Good luck in your investigation.

[mmglobal]

It's hard to see from one slice without being able to change contrast, magnify, etc...

With all the "I'm not a doctor" qualifiers, it looks somewhat stenotic, like there is not much room around the cauda equina (what seems like the spinal cord in your lumbar spine). Note that these types of issues can be comnpletely asymnptomatic in a high percentage of patients. The symptoms you described don't sound like typical L4-5 problems.

I'll be interested to hear what the EMG says.

Have you had a hernia surgery or other abdominal surgery? Read this:

http://www.ispine.org/forum/ispine/4...diagnosis.html

[rabbit]

Originally Posted by mmglobal

With all the "I'm not a doctor" qualifiers, it looks somewhat stenotic, like there is not much room around the cauda equina (what seems like the spinal cord in your lumbar spine). Note that these types of issues can be comnpletely asymnptomatic in a high percentage of patients. The symptoms you described don't sound like typical L4-5 problems.

You guys really need some people on here that do this stuff for a living (reading these studies). Having said that, your single MRI image you submitted does not show any serious pathology. There is certainly no spinal stenosis, perhaps a slight disc bulge, and mild bilateral facet joint degeneration; nothing out of the ordinary for anyone over 35 years of age. There is certainly nothing there that explains your symptoms.

Fluid on T1 weighted sequences is dark. It is perfectly normal for there to be fluid along the beginning (proximal) parts of nerve root sleeves.

While the orthopedic surgeon's recommendation is fine in this case, I certainly hope that he was not the primary interpreter of the film. That's like having someone that trained in general surgery perform a back surgery... That's what the field of Neuroradiology is for.. image interpretation with a specialization in neurological problems (head and spine).