A new study, published in The Spine Journal, found variability in findings and a high rate of diagnostic errors in MRI examinations for lumbar spine patients.
For the prospective, observational study, researchers compared the interpretive findings reported for one patient scanned at 10 different MRI centers over a period of three weeks. The patient was a 63-year-old woman with a history of low back pain and right L5 radicular symptoms.
Researchers noted 49 distinct findings reported related to the presence of a distinct pathology at a specific motion segment. However, not a single diagnostic finding was identified by all 10 participating centers.
Of the interpretive findings, only 32.7 percent appeared only once across all 10 of the study examinations' reports. Researchers found poor overall agreement on interpretive findings. Additionally, the diagnostic error rate was up to 43.6 percent.