Low back pain is one of the most common conditions treated by physical therapists. Studies have shown that up to 90% of people without low back pain have findings on imaging like MRIs and X-rays (Brinjikji 2014). Because of this poor correlation between certain types of low back pain and imaging there can be more...
Source: Karel et al. 2015. European Journal of Internal Medicine
Is a picture worth 1000 words? When having low back pain, you may undergo an MRI or CT scan. As our technology continues to improve MRI and CT scanners have become more proficient at finding changes in our low back. This higher imaging quality comes with a cost in that many of these positive findings...
photo credit: radiopaedia.org Magnetic Resonance Images (MRI) have become increasingly sensitive to detecting abnormalities and pathologies in our bodies. As the technology has advanced radiologists are far less likely to miss an abnormality in the musculoskeletal system, but are more likely to find abnormalities that may or may not be causing a patient’s current symptoms....
Often in Physical Therapy we are asked if an image would help in our diagnosis or treatment of a patient’s symptoms. The answer is very dependent on the individual patient’s case but in most cases imaging has not been shown to improve outcomes. In prior posts we have discussed the strengths and limitations of diagnostic imaging...