Magnetic resonance imaging findings of patients with neck pain in Erbil City

Abstract

Background and objective: Neck pain is one of the most common symptoms in the general population; several work-related and individual factors have been verified as being related to neck pain. This study aimed to determine the pathologic MRI findings of patients presented with neck pain and assess its association with some probable risk factors for cervical spine lesions. Methods: This descriptive cross-sectional study involved a convenient sample of 100 patients with neck pain referred to the radiology department of Rizgary teaching hospital in Erbil for Magnetic Resonance Imaging examination of the cervical spine from June 2013 to February 2014. Results: The age of the patients ranged from 21 to 70 years, with a mean age ± SD of 40.19 ±10.44 years. Around 42% of patients were between 30-39 years, and 60% were females. Clinical symptoms of the patients revealed that51.6% had radicular pain with cervical MR images abnormalities in 59% of the patients. The most common degenerative abnormality on MRI was disc bugle, which accounted for 37.3 % of total degenerative changes. MRI findings were most common at the C5/C6 level. A significant association was found between the cervical MRI abnormalities and the occupation and practicing neck (P = 0.03 and 0.001, respectively). However, no association was found with age, gender, BMI, and smoking habits of the patients. Also, there was a highly significant (P = 0.001) association between radicular pain, with disc bulge and disc protrusion. Conclusion: MRI is a useful investigation tool for diagnosing different clinical conditions among patients with cervical pain. Considering the diagnostic accuracy and costeffectiveness, it is the key diagnostic tool for early detection of the degenerative changes and initiating appropriate treatment.