A Study of MRI Findings in Lumber Spine among Sudanese Patients at Khartoum State

Abstract

This was descriptive cross sectional study aimed to study MRI findings in lumbar spine among Sudanese patients at Khartoum state, the problem of the study was the importance of lumbar spine as it supports most of body weight; any pain in lumbar region can affect the function of the spine. In Sudanese population there is high prevalence of back pain for that we need to assess the suspected causes of this pain. MRI can provide information and determining the sources of the pain and help in guided diagnoses, but there is a wide variability in the reported prevalence of different MRI findings and limited knowledge is available to inform the clinician about what should be expected of MRI findings at a certain age and how this relates to back pain in different populations. The study was carried out at Khartoum state hospitals and medical centers which have MRI department (Abdon Seed Ahmed Medical Complex, Alzaytona Hospital), conducted in period from July 2021 to March 2022, 104 patients who came to MRI department with spinal pain were enrolled in the study, aged between (11-80) years. The results showed that most patients had disc bulge was 65 (67.6%), loss of lordosis was 47 (48.9%), there was statistically insignificant correlation between MRI findings and age groups (p-value = 0.62), between MRI findings and gender (p-value = 0.11), on other hand there was statistically significant correlation between MRI findings and BMI (p-value = 0.00), between MRI findings and occupation (p-value = 0.001) The study concluded that MRI are helpful in cases of lumbar spine, the L4-L5 was the most level of spine affected by diseases, there was statistically significant correlation between MRI findings and BMI, and between MRI findings and occupation The study recommended before doing MRI it is necessary to complete history to determine the site, position and necessity factor for radiological examination.