J Korean Neurosurg Soc.  1995 Oct;24(10):1176-1180.

Comparison of Diagnostic Accuracy between CT Scan and MRI on Degenerative Lumbar Spine Diseases

• Kim YS
• Jun BY

Abstract

Both CT scan and MRI were taken on 200 randomly chosen patients of degenerative lumbar spine diseases for the double blind comparison of the diagnostic accuracy of these studies. While osseous changes such as canal stenosis, lateral recess stenosis and facet hypertrophy were graded more severe on CT scan than on MRI, facet joint laxity was graded more severe on MRI than on CT scan. MRI could not detect 44% of ligament ossifications and 45.3% of vertebral osteoplytes which were diagnosed on CT scan. MRI gave more valuable information about the direction of the disc herniation than CT scan.

Keyword

CT scan; MRI; Comparative study; Degenerative lumbar spine diseases

MeSH Terms

Constriction, Pathologic
Humans
Hypertrophy
Ligaments
Magnetic Resonance Imaging*
Spine*
Tomography, X-Ray Computed*
Zygapophyseal Joint