Interactive · Patient Education
Understand Your Cervical MRI
Your MRI report is written for doctors. This page is written for you — click any numbered point on the scan to learn what that structure is and why it matters.
Educational images and labels — not a diagnosis, and not your scan. Bring your actual MRI to your visit and Dr. Gerlach will walk through it with you.
How to read the view
Read it top to bottom
The neck stacks as C1 through C7, skull base down to the shoulders. Reports name findings by the two levels a disc sits between — C5–C6, for example.
Sagittal = from the side
A side view of the whole neck — the curve, the discs, and the cord running down the canal in one picture.
Watch the fluid ring
On T2 images, spinal fluid glows white. A continuous bright ring around the cord means room to spare; losing it means the canal is crowded.
Want yours explained, image by image?
Walking patients through their own MRI is part of every consultation.