X-rays

[gymluvr33]

I went in today for an x-ray to see if I have a stress fracture in my back, but I've been hearing from a few different people, including one of my teammates who has two stress fractures in her back, that stress fractures do not usually show up on x-rays, and that bone scans are sometimes needed to show them for sure. I was just wondering how common this was and why it might be? Are they just so small sometimes that it doesn't show? It doesn't seem very useful to take an x-ray if they don't show stress fractures very well. Anyway, that was my question, sorry if it doesn't make very much sense Oh, and just a disclaimer, I'm not looking for medical advice on my back, I've gone to my doctor and will being going to an orthopedic doctor once the x-ray results come in, I was just wondering what could cause stress fractures to not show up on an x-ray and how common that is. Thanks

 

[tomtnt]

I went in today for an x-ray to see if I have a stress fracture in my back, but I've been hearing from a few different people, including one of my teammates who has two stress fractures in her back, that stress fractures do not usually show up on x-rays, and that bone scans are sometimes needed to show them for sure. I was just wondering how common this was and why it might be? Are they just so small sometimes that it doesn't show? It doesn't seem very useful to take an x-ray if they don't show stress fractures very well. Anyway, that was my question, sorry if it doesn't make very much sense Oh, and just a disclaimer, I'm not looking for medical advice on my back, I've gone to my doctor and will being going to an orthopedic doctor once the x-ray results come in, I was just wondering what could cause stress fractures to not show up on an x-ray and how common that is. Thanks

Bone scan, MRI, CT all have higher sensitivity than X-ray for small pars defects. But, x-ray are much much cheaper to start with. And God forbid, if you have a large pars defect with associated spondylolisthesis (slip) - that will show up on x-ray.

 

[shelovestoflip]

My daughter had a stress fracture in her back. It was diagnosed with an MRI though fact is, the ortho suspected it based on her description of pain even without the MRI.

An xray is cheaper and a small fracture may not show up. Another girl at our gym had an xray and it didn't show up and she continued to practice as the dr said she would be 'ok' (different dr than ours!)

This made it worse!

Finally she had the MRI which showed the fracture.

If nothing shows on your xray I would push for an MRI if you have pain.

also, if you went today for the xray, the results should be immediate. Many places now have digital and it goes right to the dr. Find out about this because you don't want to wait.

 

[gymluvr33]

Thanks to both of you, that definitely makes sense

Shelovestoflip: I got my x-rays done at a nearby hospital, and the x-ray tech said that it usually takes 2-3 days to get the results to your General Practitioner. I would love to get the results faster, but I've been waiting for a while for this, so I guess waiting til Monday isn't that long in comparison Thanks for your concern

 

[Brandon]

I have spondylolysis, which is a stress fracture to the lower back. It showed up on my X-ray, so I'd guess that if you had one, it would show up too.