Evaluating Motor Vehicle Crash-Associated Neck Pain with Upright MRI
A study by Freeman, et.al. published in Brain Injury, July 2010; 24(7-8): 988-994 shows patients with a history of motor vehicle crash-associated neck pain have a substantially higher frequency of cerebellar tonsil ectopia (CTE) than non-traumatic subjects when evaluated with an Upright MRI.
The Upright MRI identified a degree of gravity dependent instability in the trauma group that was not observed in the non-trauma group.
This study indicates that cerebellar tonsillar ectopia is substantially more prevalent in whiplash-injured neck pain patients than in neck pain patients with no recent history of trauma.
Upright position MRI appears to increase the sensitivity to CTE over recumbent MR imaging by 2.5 times.
CDA Spine 