Learn To Read Your Own MRI's

This Page gives examples of what we, the M.D.'s, look for when we examine your MRI's. To truly understand how to review an MRI would take an entire website and thus these are meant to assist you in understanding the abnormalities that can cause pain in people. It is important to note that a abnormal MRI doesn't mean that you must have pain, nor does a normal MRI imply that pain cannot exist. The MRI is a tool, that is all. A study once showed that 50% of people who have NO pain had abnormal MRI's. Thus there is more to resolving your pain then just looking at your MRI, but it is a starting point.

These are pictures of MRI's in the sagittal view. Your MRI also includes axial cuts but for simplicity these are not shown. These pictures are around 700 Kb and thus may take a little time to download. These are copyrighted pictures and not for distribution.

The pictures open up in a new web window so that you can open up various pictures and compare them to each other.

Cervical Disc Bulge

Normal Cervical MRI

Lumbar Disc Herniation

Normal Lumbar MRI

"Bad" or Blackened Lumbar Discs

Spinal Stenosis 1

Spinal Stenosis 2