title: Extra-spinal incidental findings at lumbar spine MRI in the general population: a large cohort study.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To determine the prevalence of clinically and non-clinically relevant extra-spinal incidental findings (IF) in patients undergoing magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) of the lumbar spine and to evaluate the rate of undetected findings in archived radiological reports.
  
  
  METHODS
  A retrospective search of patients undergoing lumbar spine MRI from January 2006 to December 2010 was conducted. By means of randomisation, we retrospectively reviewed 3,000 lumbar spine MRI examinations. Extra-spinal abnormalities were classified according to a modified CT Colonography Reporting and Data System (C-RADS). We retrospectively compared our structured approach with the archived MRI reports as it regarded the detection of extra-spinal IF to estimate non-detection rates.
  
  
  RESULTS
  By means of the structured approach used, extra-spinal findings were detected in 2,060 (68.6 %) of the 3,000 lumbar spine MRI examinations; 362 (17.6 %) patients had indeterminate or clinically important findings (E3 and E4) requiring clinical correlation or further evaluation. After review of the original archived radiological reports, potentially important C-RADS E3 and E4 extra-spinal IF were respectively reported in 47 of the 265 (17.7 %) and in 8 of 74 (10.8 %) patients.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Our study shows that incidental extra-spinal findings at conventional lumbar spine MRI are common but underestimated in radiological reports.
authors: Diagnostic Imaging, Università Campus Bio-Medico di Roma, via Alvaro del Portillo, 21, 00128, Rome, Italy, c.quattrocchi@unicampus.it.
authors: Carlo Cosimo
authors: CC
authors: Quattrocchi
authors: Alessandro
authors: A
authors: Giona
authors: Alberto Corrado
authors: AC
authors: Di Martino
authors: Yuri
authors: Y
authors: Errante
authors: Laura
authors: L
authors: Scarciolla
authors: Carlo Augusto
authors: CA
authors: Mallio
authors: Vincenzo
authors: V
authors: Denaro
authors: Bruno Beomonte
authors: BB
authors: Zobel