Cervical MRI Due To Progressive Neck Pain And Headaches. What Are The Findings?

Posted on Sat, 9 Feb 2013

Medically reviewed by Ask A Doctor - 24x7 Medical Review Team

Sat, 9 Feb 2013 Answered on

Thu, 28 Feb 2013 Last reviewed on

Question : I had a cervical MRI due to progressive neck pain and headaches. this is what the report says.
C6-7 mild degenerative disc narrowing. minimal bulging of the anulus anteriorly. The left facet joint is abnormal appearance.The superior aspect of the superior facet of C7 appears enlarged and appears to narrow the left foramen. There could be an element of root compression. this presumably is developmental

the dr was doing a procedure so was unable to explain the results. They also gave me a copy of the MRI on a cd but I have no idea what this means

Answered by Dr. Sudhir (1 hour later)

Hello,

Welcome to XXXXXXX

This in simple terms means there is some wear and tear at level of C6-7 disc.This disc is mildly bulging beyond it's natural normal margin.Such discs if they bulge more backwards they pinch nerves coming out of spinal canal and in more advance cases compress spinal cord.But your stage is quiet early and nothing of much concern has happened.This is quiet common at your age.In addition wear and tear at joint between c6 and c7 vertebra is probably causing nerve compression.Doctor is not sure whether this is wear and tear or congenital developmental issue.

Hope this helps you understand the report.In case there are doubts please let me know.

Regards.

Above answer was peer-reviewed by : Dr. Chakravarthy Mazumdar