• Minkyung Yi, Joon Woo Lee, Jin S Yeom, Eugene Joe, Sung Hwan Hong, Guen Young Lee, and Heung Sik Kang.
• Departments of *Radiology and †Orthopedic Surgery, Seoul National University Bundang Hospital, Gyeonggi-do, Korea; and ‡Department of Radiology, Seoul National University Hospital, Seoul, Korea.
• Spine. 2014 Jun 1;39(13):1077-83.

Study DesignReview and grade the morphology of the C1-C2 neural foramina, from the MR images of patients who underwent C1-C2 spinal surgery, and determine the relationship with ON.ObjectiveTo evaluate the feasibility of MRI for C1-C2 neural foramen evaluation with a new grading system and to correlate the C1-C2 neural foramen grade with ON.Summary Of Background DataThere have been no MRI studies of patients with and without ON in relation to C2 nerve root ganglion findings.MethodsAmong the registry of 124 patients who underwent C1-C2 spinal surgery between July 2004 and May 2012 in Seoul National University Bundang Hospital, we enrolled 101 patients who had information about ON and a relevant preoperative cervical spine MR image. A total of 202 neural foramina were evaluated with our new C1-C2 neural foramen grading system (grade, 0-3) using consensus reading by 2 experienced radiologists who were blinded to the clinical information. The relationship between the C1-C2 grading system and ON was assessed using a χ test and Fisher exact test. Inter- and intraobserver reliability agreement was assessed using the κ statistic.ResultsAll C1-C2 neural foramina were delineated on T2 parasagittal images. Among 202 C1-C2 neural foramina, grade zero was found in 49 foramina (24.3%), grade 1 in 95 (47.0%), grade 2 in 30 (14.9%), and grade 3 in 28 (13.9%). Grade 1 stenosis was most frequently noted. The grade 2 group had the most frequent prevalence of ON (43.3%), followed by grade 3 (35.7%), grade zero (30.6%), and grade 1 (29.5%). However, the relationship between the grade and ON was not statistically significant. Inter- and intraobserver agreements were substantially high.ConclusionC1-C2 neural foramina can be depicted on MR image. However, the relationship between the new grading system for C1-C2 neural foramina and ON was not statistically significant.Level Of Evidence4.

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