X-ray For Diagnosing Back Pain

X-rays are useful in showing the alignment of the spine and in showing any slippage like subluxation or spondylolisthesis. An X-ray examination makes use of electromagnetic radiations to take images of your bones and internal organs. It helps your doctor in diagnosing the cause of your disease as it is a painless medical test. It helps in determining whether your bone is dislocated or broken. Evaluating bone injuries and joint infections and diagnosing the progression of degenerative conditions like osteoporosis and arthritis can be done with the help of X-rays.

There are two types of X-rays for the spine. These are:
Discography: X-ray of the disc is called as discography. It needs injections in to the discs which are being suspected to be the source of pain and the discs near it. It is generally a painful test and is recommended for the patients undergoing the back surgery to identify the location of the injured disc.

X-ray Myelogram: X-ray of the spine is called X-ray myelogram. It needs spinal injection of a special dye and requires to lie still for several hours to avoid a painful headache. It is useful only for patients who experience pain while moving and standing. This process has been replaced by MRI and CT scan. With the dye in spinal canal, X-rays are able to show the pathology of nerve root compression.

X-rays are helpful in revealing signs of infection, injury, stenosis, tumor or changes in the vertebrae causing inflammation and compression on the nerve. X- rays are effective and safe for people of all ages as the amount of radiation you are exposed to, during an X-ray is so small that the risk of damaging the cell is too low. An X-ray procedure may take few minutes for a bone X-ray or more than an hour in other serious complications. X-rays help in showing information related to bones and joints but fail to directly show the problems with your spinal cord, fibrous tissues, muscles, nerves or discs.