MRI on 1/24/2008 with diagnosis of the C4/5 disk. Patient with neck pain with pain in right arm and hand/numbness tingling. Please note, CT examination is very the limited in the evaluation of disk herniation. Within this limitation, the following observations are made.The bony density and alignment of the cervical spine is normal. Degenerative disk disease affects the cervical spine, most severe at the C5/C6 and C6/C7 vertebral levels. Findings by specific intervertebral level are as follows:C2/C3: Unremarkable.C3/C4: Degenerative changes. No evidence of neural foraminal narrowing or central spinal canal stenosis.C4-C5: Degenerative bulge of disk material. The neural foramina are narrowed bilaterally, right greater than left, which appear similar to the prior examination.C5-C6: Advanced degenerative disk disease with near complete loss of disk height. A large epidural hypertrophic spur is seen on the right and there is questionable right neural foramina narrowing. I cannot evaluate for disk herniation on this noncontrast CT examination. In review of the prior MRI, no definite herniation of disk material is seen. Findings on prior MRI appear to represent calcific hypertrophic changes secondary to degenerative disease rather than disk herniation.C6/C7: Advanced degenerative disk disease and mild bilateral neural foraminal narrowing.C7/T1: Unremarkable.T1/T2: Unremarkable.
Advanced degenerative disk disease, most severe at the lower cervical spine levels. Please note, I cannot evaluate for disk herniation on this noncontrast CT examination. However, in correlation with today's examination, no definite disk herniation is identified on the prior MRI examination dated 1/24/2008 and the previously seen findings are believed to be represent calcific hypertrophic changes of degenerative disease.