[Mystery of alar ligament rupture: value of MRI in whiplash injuries--biomechanical, anatomical and clinical studies].
OBJECTIVE
Whiplash injury of the cervical spine is a frequent issue in medical expertise and causes enormous consequential costs for motor insurance companies. Some authors accuse posttraumatic changes of alar ligaments to be causative for consequential disturbances.


METHODS
Review of recent studies on biomechanics, anatomical and clinical MR imaging.


RESULTS
Biomechanical experiments can not induce according injuries of alar ligaments. Although MRI provides excellent visualization of alar ligaments, the range of normal variants is high.


CONCLUSIONS
Biomechanical studies give no evidence of alar ligament involvement in whiplash disease. Using MRI, signal alterations of alar ligaments can hardly be differentiated from common normal variants. Functional MRI provides no diagnostic yield.
Bitterling
H
H
Abteilung für Neuroradiologie, Klinikum der LMU, München. harro.bitterling@med.uni-muenchen.de
Stäbler
A
A
Brückmann
H
H
D001696:Biomechanical Phenomena; D003937:Diagnosis, Differential; D006801:Humans; D008022:Ligaments / Q000033:anatomy & histology / Q000293:injuries* / Q000473:pathology*; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging / Q000379:methods*; D014911:Whiplash Injuries / Q000473:pathology*