Is it better to take a CT scan or an MRI for back pain?

Low back pain is a type of waist disease that torments many people, and once it occurs, it will be very uncomfortable. So at this time you should go to the hospital to check what causes your back pain, so that you can get a better treatment. However, when diagnosing low back pain, patients often face two medical testing methods: CT and MRI. So for patients with low back pain, is it better to do CT or MRI?

The inspection principle of CT is that X-rays pass through the human body through sections. After computer processing, it can be processed into two images.

Advantages: Visible through failures, post-processing can reveal more information.

Disadvantages: Expensive, radiation dose is usually higher than CT.

Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI)

Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) is an imaging technique that uses signals generated by the magnetic resonance phenomenon to reconstruct images. It's just the equivalent of the vibration of the hydrogen protons, and then calming down to feel the way the vibrations are in the image.

Advantages: Compared with CT, no radiation, no bone artifacts. It features multifunctionality, multi-parameter imaging, and high soft tissue resolution.

Disadvantages: The cost is relatively high.

For the examination and diagnosis of low back pain, although there are some overlaps between CT and MR examination methods, they cannot replace each other and need to be selected based on the specific symptoms of low back pain. Common causes of low back pain include: lumbar bone hyperplasia, fracture, herniated disc, spinal stenosis, spinal canal tumor and lumbar muscle strain. Among them, CT examination can clearly show the compression of the vertebral bony structure, spinal cord, and nerve roots, and can also observe whether the intervertebral foramen and transverse foramen are narrowed, and can reconstruct the three-dimensional morphology of the lumbar spine; while MR can show the posterior disc protrusion, compression of the dura mater sac and spinal cord, as well as lesions within the spinal canal and surrounding soft tissue lesions.

Therefore, when choosing which examination to take, you need to make different choices based on the specific symptoms, rather than the more expensive the better. A good examination is one that is suitable.