Early Use of MRI for Lower Back Pain Costly, Prolongs Disability

Early use of Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) to diagnose work-related lower back pain often leads to higher medical costs, unnecessary medical procedures and prolonged disability, according to new medical research. Claims in which MRI was used either within the first 30 days of pain onset or when there was no specific medical condition justifying the MRI yielded significantly higher medical costs, even after controlling for severity, says a study in the peer-reviewed medical journal Spine, published by Lippincott Williams & Wilkins.