What does my X-ray or MRI mean?
Have you ever had an X-ray or an MRI of a joint? Odds are you found some type of abnormality or maybe even a laundry list of findings. Often times, the phrases used in the reports sound scary, are hard to even pronounce, and make you feel like you “have the body of a 100 year old”! What isn’t mentioned on the report is how common some, or all of those findings are. This means your body could have looked like that before the pain or issue that brought you to the doctor’s office started.
Here are some interesting facts compiled from several peer-reviewed studies.
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Over 40% of people under the age of 30 have evidence of lumbar disc degeneration, and over 90% of people aged 50-55 have similar findings. ¹
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In a study with those over age 60, it was found through MRI that over 50% of the participants had rotator cuff tears in their shoulder. The good news here is, not one of those people had any pain at all! ²
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For X-rays of knees, it was found that up to 85% of adults without knee pain had some evidence of arthritis in the knee joints. ³ One study even showed that almost 50% of healthy NBA players had evidence of knee cartilage or meniscus damage in their knees, and they were playing basketball without issue.⁴
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At the foot/ankle region, up to 32% of people without pain in that area have a heel spur that was found on X-ray. Now, there is a correlation between heel spurs and plantar fasciitis, but it is not a direct cause and effect relationship.⁵
This does not mean that what was found on the X-ray or MRI is completely irrelevant. Imaging results need to be taken with the whole presentation, they are like one piece to the whole puzzle. There are instances where imaging findings are correlated with symptoms, especially after traumatic injuries. There are other instances where they are not relevant and can be best described as “wrinkles on the inside” – just a normal part of aging. It is best left up to healthcare professionals to determine how relevant your X-ray or MRI results are in order to put together the best plan of care for you. Here at Full Range we can help you put the other pieces of the puzzle together in order to get you back feeling 100%!
If you are suffering from an injury, or have questions on different health topics, give us a call at 610-241-2685. We’d love the opportunity to help you recover!
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Cheung KM, Karppinen J, Chan D, Ho DW, Song YQ, Sham P, Cheah KS, Leong JC, Luk KD. Prevalence and pattern of lumbar magnetic resonance imaging changes in a population study of one thousand forty-three individuals. Spine (Phila Pa 1976). 2009 Apr 20;34(9):934-40. doi: 10.1097/BRS.0b013e3181a01b3f. PMID: 19532001.
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Sher JS, Uribe JW, Posada A, Murphy BJ, Zlatkin MB. Abnormal findings on magnetic resonance images of asymptomatic shoulders. J Bone Joint Surg Am. 1995 Jan;77(1):10-5. doi: 10.2106/00004623-199501000-00002. PMID: 7822341.
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Bedson J, Croft PR. The discordance between clinical and radiographic knee osteoarthritis: a systematic search and summary of the literature. BMC Musculoskelet Disord. 2008 Sep 2;9:116. doi: 10.1186/1471-2474-9-116. PMID: 18764949; PMCID: PMC2542996.
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Kaplan LD, Schurhoff MR, Selesnick H, Thorpe M, Uribe JW. Magnetic resonance imaging of the knee in asymptomatic professional basketball players. Arthroscopy. 2005 May;21(5):557-61. doi: 10.1016/j.arthro.2005.01.009. PMID: 15891721.
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Johal KS, Milner SA. Plantar fasciitis and the calcaneal spur: Fact or fiction? Foot Ankle Surg. 2012 Mar;18(1):39-41. doi: 10.1016/j.fas.2011.03.003. Epub 2011 Apr 13. PMID: 22326003.
