Cervical Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) Findings in Patients with Neck Pain; A Cross Sectional Study in Southeast of Iran

Introduction: Neck pain is a common problem in human societies; around 67-70% of adultsexperience it throughout their lives. There is much controversy in the literature about chronic neckpain causes and the role of imaging in the evaluation of it. In this study, we aimed to investigate theMRI findings in patients with neck pain.Methods: This cross-sectional study was conducted in 2014 in Zahedan, Iran. The study populationwas consisted of the patients with neck pain, in which a total of 700 patients were studied. After theMRI imaging, the study subjects were asked some questions and the required information wascollected.Findings: 32.3% of the subjects were males and the average age of the participants was 35.62±10.15years. 76.8% of people had chronic pain and also 86.4% of people didn’t show any abnormal findingand in the rest of them spondylosis and trauma were the most common abnormal causes. Disc bulgingand protrusion were the most common finding and C3-C4 and C4-C5 were the most common level ofthese damages.Conclusion: In this study, like previous studies, the most common causes of neck pain were nonspecificcauses and they followed by spondylosis and neck trauma.