Clinical question: 49-year-old with cervical neck pain. Signs and symptoms: Tenderness in the spine especially with extension. Nonenhanced cervical MRI:There is normal anatomical alignment of vertebral column.There is unremarkable signal intensity of vertebral column.There is normal caliber and signal intensity of cervical and upper most visualized thoracic cord.Foramen magnum is unremarkable.C2-C3 is unremarkable.C3-C4 is unremarkable.C4-C5 demonstrate mild degenerative disc disease with mild loss of disc height. There is bilateral uncovertebral hypertrophy with resultant moderate right neural foraminal compromise and mild on the left. Mild central spinal stenosis is also suspected.C5-C6 demonstrate mild to moderate degenerative disc disease and mild loss of disc height without significant degenerative or hypertrophic changes of posterior elements. There is shallow broad-based bulging disc which is a slightly more prominent on the right compared to left. Osteophytes from uncovertebral hypertrophic changes are also present at this level and more prominent on the right. Constellation of changes at this level results in effacement of ventral subarachnoid space, subtle flattening and posterior displacement of the cord and mild central spinal stenosis. Moderate left neural foraminal compromise and mild right.C6-C7 demonstrate mild degenerative changes without central spinal stenosis. Mild left neural foraminal compromise is suspected.C7-T1 through T3-T4 levels are unremarkable.
1.Degenerative changes at C5-C6 and to a lesser degree at C4-C5 results in mild central spinal stenosis and neural foraminal compromise as detailed above.2.Unremarkable images at other levels. Please review detailed report above.3.The caliber and signal intensity of the visualized cervical/upper thoracic cord remains within normal.