Question: I suffer with chronic back pain, in my neck thoracic and lumbar which I can not resolve. Can anyone give me a second opinion and or proffectional oppinion of my MRI images & scans.

Hi, my friend who is a student radiographer looked at my MRI Scan, who is obviously very keen to try and interpret MRI images, he noted 7 prolapsed disks & 2 benign tumor's which do not show up anywhere on my MRI report, hence my questions and request for your professional opinions, as I know my pain is real & debilitating.

Sorry about the last .pdf Binder, it was faulty & had repeated files, I have now deleted the first upload and replaced the .pdf Binder with all my MRI images

Thank you for your reply, as previously mentioned, my friend who is a student Radiographer and not yet qualified to give a professional opinion, looked at my MRI scans on my OsirX Dicom viewer, and wrote his views as follows: -

Small benign hemangiomas within the thoracic spine at T8 and T10.
Small stable chronically herniated Schmorl's nodes along the inferior endplates of T7,
T8, T9, T10, and T11. A small posterior disc herniation is present at T8-T9 and T11-T12.
No evidence for spinal canal stenosis or neural foraminal narrowing in the thoracic spine.

There is loss of the normal cervical lordosis with straightening of the cervical spine.
C2-C3, there is no significant spinal canal neural foraminal stenosis. No significant disc herniation is identified.
C3-C4, there is no significant spinal canal or neural foraminal stenosis. No significant disc herniation is present.
C4-C5, there is a small broad-based posterior disc herniation without significant spinal canal or neural foraminal stenosis. The ventral thecal sac is effaced.
C5-C6, there is a small broad-based posterior disc herniation with a small central disc protrusion. This indents the ventral thecal sac however; there is no significant spinal canal stenosis. There is no significant neural foraminal narrowing.
C6-C7, there is a tiny right paramedian disc protrusion. This indents the ventral thecal sac.
There is no significant spinal canal or neural foraminal stenosis.
C7-T1 is unremarkable.

His opinion was so vastly different from that of my official MRI report that just stated the results, as unremarkable, with a verbal comment “You have a few lumps and bumps, but everybody’s got those, you spine is perfect, there is nothing surgically wrong with you”.

I then sought a second opinion privately, again with a wildly different report. His report suggested that I was suffering with Scheuermanns Disease.

When I later spoke to my own GP and showed him the second opinion report, he said “Absolute poppycott, that would have been spotted in your adolescence, and you certainly do not have Scheuermanns Disease, if anything it is probable a condition known as “Kyphosis” caused by impact or injury, and linked with the accident you had 9 years ago.

I have tried many of your suggestions already, with no success; straight leg rises are impossible without causing unimaginable pain in my lumbar spine. I’ve also had 2 scapular injections that only give relief for a short time period; my medication has been increased year after year, but they are no longer give effective pain relief.

One other point, my carer who’s father suffered for years with back pain, underwent 3 separate MRI scans over a period of several years, all of which resulted as being “Unremarkable” he then finally had a flexation X-Ray with contrasting XXXXXXX he was immediately rushed in for an emergency operation and had 3 disks removed, knowing that made me wonder about my own supine MRI Scan and its suitability for viewing and diagnosis of trapped nerves, I have read a lot about the benefits of stand up MRI imaging which takes into account the big question of “Gravity, Mass and Spinal Compression”.