07-04-2007, 10:41 PM
Arthritis seems a very general term. Did they say rheumatoid? Or just arthritis?
Anyway, from my understanding, an x-ray would detect any abnormalities in the hard tissues -- bone, cartilage, maybe tendons. An MRI would provide detail about the soft tissues.
I did some searches and found this website about Clinical Guidelines for CT/MRI of the spine. One could deduce from it that a CT or MRI are the better tools for determining disease, trauma or abnormality related to the spine. Yours would be cervical, right?
Anyway, for what it's worth, here's the link:
http://medpolicy.bluecrossca.com/policie...spine.html
By the way, was this a very sudden onset? Was there any mention of the possibility of a bacterial infection or something like that? Yeah, yeah, I know. I'm not exactly Dr. McCoy...
Anyway, from my understanding, an x-ray would detect any abnormalities in the hard tissues -- bone, cartilage, maybe tendons. An MRI would provide detail about the soft tissues.
I did some searches and found this website about Clinical Guidelines for CT/MRI of the spine. One could deduce from it that a CT or MRI are the better tools for determining disease, trauma or abnormality related to the spine. Yours would be cervical, right?
Anyway, for what it's worth, here's the link:
http://medpolicy.bluecrossca.com/policie...spine.html
By the way, was this a very sudden onset? Was there any mention of the possibility of a bacterial infection or something like that? Yeah, yeah, I know. I'm not exactly Dr. McCoy...
I'm nobody's pony.