Effects of Diagnostic Information, Per Se, on Patient Outcomes in Acute Radiculopathy and Low Back Pain

We conducted a prospective randomized study of patients with acute low back pain and/or radiculopathy to assess the effect of knowledge of diagnostic findings on clinical outcome. The practice of ordering spinal imaging, perhaps unintentionally, includes a large number of patients for whom the imagi...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:American journal of neuroradiology : AJNR 2008-06, Vol.29 (6), p.1098-1103
Main Authors: Ash, L.M, Modic, M.T, Obuchowski, N.A, Ross, J.S, Brant-Zawadzki, M.N, Grooff, P.N
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Acute Disease
Adult
Biological and medical sciences
Female
Humans
Investigative techniques, diagnostic techniques (general aspects)
Low Back Pain - diagnosis
Low Back Pain - epidemiology
Low Back Pain - therapy
Magnetic Resonance Imaging - statistics & numerical data
Male
Medical sciences
Nervous system
Ohio - epidemiology
Outcome Assessment, Health Care - statistics & numerical data
Pain Measurement - statistics & numerical data
Patient Satisfaction - statistics & numerical data
Practice Patterns, Physicians' - statistics & numerical data
Prevalence
Prognosis
Radiculopathy - diagnosis
Radiculopathy - epidemiology
Radiculopathy - therapy
Radiodiagnosis. Nmr imagery. Nmr spectrometry
Radionuclide investigations
Spine
Treatment Outcome
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Summary:We conducted a prospective randomized study of patients with acute low back pain and/or radiculopathy to assess the effect of knowledge of diagnostic findings on clinical outcome. The practice of ordering spinal imaging, perhaps unintentionally, includes a large number of patients for whom the imaging test is performed for purposes of reassurance or because of patient expectations. If this rationale is valid, one would expect to see a measurable effect from diagnostic information, per se. A total of 246 patients with acute (
ISSN:0195-6108
1936-959X
DOI:10.3174/ajnr.A0999