Abstract

Narrowing of the cervical neural foramen which can be caused by degenerative changes such as osteophytes, hypertrophic facets or lateral disc herniation is defined as cervical neural foraminal stenosis (NFS). Since the anatomical changes mentioned above cause the cervical neural foramen to narrow, they can result in nerve root invasion, inflammation or both changes and result in cervical radiculopathy symptoms such as tingling, neck pain, etc. Aim & Objective: 1.To study the Diagnostic accuracy of the new Magnetic Resonance Imaging grading system for cervical neural foramina stenosis based on T2 weighted axial MRI images.2.To give recommendations based on the study Methods: Study design: A Cross Sectional Study. Study setting: Radiology department of tertiary care centre. Study duration: from…to….. Study population: The study population included all the cases with Suspected & Diagnosed cervical neural foraminal stenosis patients admitted at a tertiary care center Sample size: 126 Results: majority of the patients in male and female were from the age group of 41-50 years (22 males & 19 females). In the age group of 51-60 years, out of total 26 patients 14 (53.85%) were male and 12 (46.15%) were female. From above table, we can say that male to female distribution in all the age group was same. In all age groups male preponderance was observed but the difference was statistically not significant (p>0.05). Pain was the most common presenting symptom observed in 123 (97.62%) Most commonly observed stenosis was Grade 0 (48.88%). Severity of stenosis (grade 2) was more at the level C6-C7 (30.16% on right and 36.5% on left side) than at level C5-C6 (25.29% on right side and 26.79% on left side) and at level C4-C5 (13.49% on right side and 12.69% on left side). intra observer reliability according to grading of cervical neural foramina stenosis. Intra observer agreement ranged from 85.3 to 93.6. Maximum agreement was seen at level C4-C5 on right side and lowest agreement was observed at level C4-C5 on left side. Overall agreement for grading of cervical neural foramina stenosis was 89.5. Overall agreement for presence of stenosis was 80.5. It indicates moderate agreement. Maximum agreement (87.6) was observed at level C4-C5 on left side and lowest (78.1) was seen at level C6-C7 on right side. Conclusions: The new MRI grading system shows sufficient interobserver and intraobserver agreement to reliably assess cervical neural foraminal stenosis. This new grading system is a useful and easy method for the objective evaluation of cervical neural foraminal stenosis by radiologists and clinicians

Description