the cervical spine
MRI can be viewed in two different planes
a side view plane called sagittal plane
and a bottom-up plane
called an axial plane
on the side view
what we do is we take a samurai sword and literally slice the spine
like a loaf of bread into different sections
and that is what is represented up here
by the side view
of the cervical spine or the sagittal view
you can see the individual discs here
which are represented by the discs here
and in the center where the spinal cord is you can see the spinal cord coming
down in the center there
you can see these spinous processes
which are projecting out of the back
right here
the bottom-up view which is noted here
is essentially
this view
the vertebral body
is here which is represented by the first part of the image here
the spinal canal with the spinal cord is here
which you can notice
in this area
and the two paired facets on either side here
which you'll notice here
and here
on the MRI
we're going to talk about a new normal cervical spine MRI
to remember the anatomy
what we do is we have two views we have the side view of the spine
and we have bottom-up view of the spine
on the side view you are looking in the center now
we can tell because we can look at this image and we can see where this cut lines
and the cut line is that right in the center of the canal that reflects where
we are
we can move
this image and you'll see by moving the image of the cut line moves off the
center
to the side
so we can move it in either direction and see the spine in multiple dimensions
we will start with the center
here we see the brain stem the medulla oblongata and the pons
we see the cerebellum in the cerebellar tonsils
and then we see the structure of the spinal cord which comes all the way down
the spine from the top to the bottom and ends in the lumbar spine
the white stuff
on either side of this is cerebral spinal fluid which is simply water your
brain and spinal cord float in water
you can see the individual vertebra here
and you can see the discs in between the vertebra here
the first and second vertebra are very different
than the rest of the vertebra
the first and second have a big head on the second one and a small ring on the
first one
we can see the back where we see these spinous processes and these are little
bumps that we can feel when we press on the back of our neck through the skin
here to feel those little
processes
you can see muscles here and you can see fat here and here
we start with the vertebra in between the vertebrae of course are the discs
the discs are named for the vertebra they are sandwiched in between
this is C two
this is C three so this is the C two three disc
this is C three and C four
or the C three four disc and so on C four five
five six C six seven
and now C seven T one
as this is the first thoracic vertebra
we can look at the back of the discs
to make sure there are no herniations
or significant spurs and we can pull
to either side to look for that we can see here that everything looks normal
we can look at the cord itself
to see if there's any compression
what we'd like to see is the csf or this water
on either side of the cord because it acts has a cushion
we want to make sure the cord has no change in its uniform dark
signal
because light spots in the cord can indicate an injury
or some disease processes
with him then look here
at the top down view
what we're doing is we're making a cut through this part of the spine
and looking essentially up at it from the bottom
here we see the spinal cord
sitting in this sac the dural sac
and this is the water or the csf
we can see the exit zones for the nerve
on either side
and these exit zones are defined by the vertebral body here
and by the back of the facet here and these are nice large exit zones
we can start to move down the spine
and then we get to the vertebral body
and then we pass that level to get to the next one
here again is the cord and here are the two exit zones for the nerves that are
leaving this cord
we then march down again to the next level
and again see the normal cord and the normal nerve exit zones
and we can continue down
all through the spine
looking here
at C five six with a normal exit zones
and continue down to C six seven
with normal exit zones
and even continue down
into C seven T one
with normal nerve exit zones
so this defines
a normal MRI of the cervial spine