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No one really knows for sure if whiplash causes pain and disability over the long haul. But researchers are looking at this topic to try to find out more. One study followed whiplash patients for 10 years and compared their MRIs with people who had not had a whiplash event. The study participants also answered questions about their pain levels.
Now, let me point out that it's very common for people to have neck or back pain while their MRIs look completely normal. And the opposite is true, too. Someone can have an MRI that looks really messed up, yet they feel no pain. True to form, this study found no real correlation between the whiplash patients' MRIs and their pain levels.
The study looked at the signal activity in the discs, (bright spots on the film that indicate something's amiss), disc protrusion (budging disc), disc space narrowing and narrowing in the intervertebral foramen (called spinal stenosis).
Over time the signal intensity decreased for most whiplash patients, and only in about half of the controls. Both groups had a significant amount of disc bulge in back. Compared to the amount of signal intensity and bulging discs, there was less disc space narrowing and stenosis in both groups over the 10 year period.
The researchers acknowledge the pain of the whiplash patients, but concluded that their MRIs could not explain it.
Source:
May, D., MD, et. al. Abnormal Signal Intensity in Skeletal Muscle at MR Imaging: Patterns, Pearls, and Pitfalls. Radiographics. July 2010 Accessed Aug 2010 http://radiographics.rsna.org/content/20/suppl_1/S295.full
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