Evaluating Magnetic Resonance Imaging Findings in Cervical Spine of Patients with Neck Pain in Port-Harcourt, South-South Nigeria

Neck pain (cervicalgia) is one of the potentially disabling and expensive musculoskeletal disorders that is becoming increasingly common worldwide with enormous impact on individuals, families, communities, health care and jobs. The purpose of this study was to establish the pattern of Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) findings in patients presenting with neck pain in Port-Harcourt south-south Nigeria and relating these findings with age and sex. This study was carried out in the radiology departments of University of Port-Harcourt Teaching Hospital and Transview Diagnostics Center Port-Harcourt over a 12month period. It is a cohort study of 130 patients’ imaging findings after undergoing MRI for neck pain. Both normal findings as well as abnormal findings seen were documented on a datasheet. Statistical analysis was performed using Statistical Package for Social Sciences version 20.0. Pearson Chi-square, Fishers Exact or student’s T tests were used as appropriate to compare age and sex with MRI findings. A p value of 0.05 was considered significant. Participants were from 19-76 years of age with mean age of 55.4±11.3 years.  Males were 75.4% while females were 24.6%. Among the study population 88.5% had abnormal findings while 11.5% were normal.  Spondylosis (67.7%) was the commonest MRI finding in the studied population and associated significantly with sex (p=0.0001). Second most common finding was intervertebral disc degeneration (31.5%). Spondylosis is the most common cause of neck pain in our environment seen mainly among males while the second most common cause was intervertebral disc degeneration.