Diagnostic Value of an Additional Sequence (Large-Field Coronal Stir) in a Routine Lumbar Spine MR Imaging Protocol to Investigate Lumbar Radiculopathy.

Objective: Lumbar radiculopathy mainly originates in the spine (lumbar disc herniation or spine osteoarthritis) but can sometimes be explained by extra-spinal nerve compression or confused with referred pain mimicking radiculopathy. Our main objective was to demonstrate the clinical benefit of the large-field coronal STIR (coroSTIR) sequence in the etiological assessment of lumbar radiculopathy with a duration of more than six weeks.

Materials And Methods: Six hundred consecutive lumbar MRI scans performed using the same protocol were retrospectively reviewed.