The Value of Additional Cervicothoracic Spine Sagittal T2-weighted Images Included in Routine Lumbar Spine MR Imaging

MRI is commonly used to evaluate lumbar spine abnormalities in patients with symptoms such as lower back pain, leg pain, paresthesia, weakness in the legs, and claudication. Occasionally, these symptoms are caused by pathologic lesions in the cervical or thoracic spine and mistaken for those caused by lumbar spine lesions. Some pathologic lesions in the cervical or thoracic spine may be serious and need early diagnosis for prompt treatment. In our hospital, additional cervicothoracic spine sagittal T2-weighted images (CT SAG T2WIs) have been obtained routinely in lumbar spine MRI for eight years. CT SAG T2WIs are easily obtained in short time, about 1 minute 40 seconds, without positional change or additional survey acquisition. According to our experience, CT SAG T2WI is useful for screening a pathologic lesion in the cervical or thoracic spine. However, to the best of our knowledge, there has been no study about the usefulness of CT SAG T2WIs in routine lumbar spine MRI. The aim of this study was to evaluate usefulness of CT SAG T2WIs included in routine lumbar spine MR