Value of perineural edema/inflammation detected by fat saturation sequences in lumbar magnetic resonance imaging of patients with unilateral sciatica

Abstract

Axial (and, when required, sagittal and coronal) short-tau inversion recovery or fat-saturated T2-weighted magnetic resonance images may be helpful for revealing additional findings in cases of unexplained sciatica in standard magnetic resonance imaging. However, the value of this imaging may be not great enough to justify routine use of these additional sequences to study the level of sciatica.