The Normal Spine

Abstract

The radiologic study of choice for assessing most diseases of the spine is the MRI. In a lateral view of the normal cervical spine, you should look for four primary osseous contours. These are the anterior vertebral line, posterior vertebral line, spinolaminar line, and spinous process line. The areas of the spinal column you should look for are the subarachnoid space, the spinal cord, and the dura, arachnoid, and pia matter. The conus medullaris arises at the L1/L2 level of the spine and should be visible on imaging. Nerve roots in the thoracic and lumbar region of the spine exit below their respective vertebral bodies. On T1 MRI, the vertebral bodies should be of high intensity and the CSF of low intensity. On T2 MRI, the vertebral bodies should be of low intensity and the CSF of high intensity.

What is the radiologic study of choice for assessing most diseases of the spine?	Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI)
Name the four primary osseous contours that should be checked on every lateral cervical spine radiograph. Name the areas of the spinal column on this axial schematic.	(a) Anterior vertebral line (b) Posterior vertebral line (c) Spinolaminar line   (i) Junctions between the laminae and the spinous process (d) Spinous process line [1]
	A, subarachnoid space; B, spinal cord; C, dura/arachnoid; D, pia
What are the relative heights of the disk spaces in each part of the normal spine?	(a) Cervical: equal disk spaces (b) Thoracic: slightly decreased from the cervical but equal to each other (c) Lumbar: disk spaces progressively increase except for L5–S1 [2]
What do the ear, the leg, the nose, the eye, and the neck correlate to on the normal “Scottie Dog” sign ?	(a) Ear: superior articular facet (b) Leg: inferior articular facet (c) Nose: transverse process (d) Eye: pedicle (e) Neck: pars interarticularis [2]
What is the level of the spinal cord of the conus medullaris?	L1–L2
Which spinal levels have nerve roots exiting above their respective vertebrae?	C1–C7
Which spinal have nerve roots exiting below their respective vertebrae?	Thoracic and lumbar
What are the expected appearances of the vertebral bodies and CSF in a T1-weighted image?	(a) Vertebral bodies: high signal intensity (bright) (b) CSF: low signal intensity (dark)
What are the expected appearances of the vertebral bodies and CSF in a T2-weighted image?	(a) Vertebral bodies: low signal intensity (dark) (b) CSF: high signal intensity (bright)
Name the five ligaments of the spine.	(a) Anterior longitudinal ligament (b) Posterior longitudinal ligament (c) Ligamentum flavum (d) Interspinous ligament (e) Supraspinous ligament [2]