Extraspinal Incidental Findings at Lumbar Spine Magnetic Resonance Imaging in Two Hospitals: Prevalence and Clinical Importance

Abstract

Objective: To assess the importance of incidental extraspinal findings on Magnetic Resonance Imaging of the lumbar spine in two hospital facilities. Materials and Methods: It was a descriptive and retrospective study from November 2015 to March 2016. The records of patients who had done a Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) scan of the lumbar spine were re-read in search of incidental findings. The incidental findings found were classified using Colonography Reporting and Data System(C-RADS) classification of extracolonic lesions to assess clinical significance. The prevalence of incidental findings was calculated for each facility, as well as the distribution according to age, the organs involved and the clinical importance. A non-detection rate was calculated by confronting the findings of the study with the original reports. Results: The prevalence of incidental findings was respectively 33% (19 out of 36) in Jordan Medical Center (JMC) in Yaounde and 27.74% (106 out of 292) in Jacques Monod Hospital. The extraspinal incidental findings were classified mainly as extracolonic 2 (E2): 58% in each facility. The percentage detection of incidental findings was 5% at JMS and 1.7% at Jacques Monod Hospital. Conclusion: Extraspinal incidental findings are frequent in both hospitals. However, the rate of detection remains very low.

Extraspinal findings prevalence and clinical significance in 4250 lumbar spine MRI exams

“…ESFs in this study were more common in the age group of 45–60 years which is similar to other studies 6 , 8 . This age group can represent a common age group for different degenerative changes.…”

“…This series, with a larger sample size compared to the previous series, showed that the prevalence of ESFs is 31.1%. This prevalence was close to several other studies 5 , 6 , 8 . However, it was lower than that reported by Quattrocchi et al 3 .…”

“…Several studies have investigated the different aspects of ESFs detected in the lumbar spine MRI including their prevalence, distribution over the different organs, and their reporting rates 3 , 5 – 8 . Variable ESFs prevalence rate was reported among different age groups with a range of 9.5–68.8% 3 , 5 , 7 , 9 The role of localizer images in increasing detection of extraspinal findings as well as the prevalence of incidental extraspinal malignancies in lumbar spine MRI scans had also been investigated 1 , 10 , 11 .…”

Chest Computed Tomography of Elderly Subjects at University Hospital Campus Lomé

“…The rest of the exams were normal (37.5%). Zeh et al had found 17% of normal examinations for all thoracic CT exams performed in university hospitals in Yaoundé without age restriction [5]. This difference may pose a problem of not justifying certain CT examinations carried out in our service.…”

“…CT is the imaging technique increasingly used for the diagnosis of metastases [8]. Zeh et al found a much higher proportion with about 45% of suspected tumors [5]. Detection of pulmonary metastases requires chest radiography and/or thoracic CT.…”