title: [Medical imaging of low back pain].
abstract: The indication for a radiological examination of a patient with low back pain by CT or MRI scans is based on age, medical history and clinical findings. The result of morphological (and possibly structural) tests should be consistent with the clinical findings. In fact, the scans often do not provide very powerful evidence. The elderly patient frequently has permanent deformations or primary or secondary malignant bone lesions and therefore requires special tests.
authors.affiliation: Service de radiodiagnostic et radiologie interventionnelle, Centre hospitalier universitaire vaudois, Lausanne.
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Landry
authors.forename: C
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Fritsch
mesh_terms: D003937:Diagnosis, Differential; D006801:Humans; D007405:Intervertebral Disc Displacement / Q000175:diagnosis*; D017116:Low Back Pain / Q000209:etiology*; D008159:Lumbar Vertebrae / Q000473:pathology*; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging; D013122:Spinal Diseases / Q000175:diagnosis*; D014057:Tomography, X-Ray Computed