Full Length Spine CT and MRI

Spine is a complex and long structure in the human body. Visualization of the spine is essential to treat and manage spine disease and commonly requires further imaging modalities such as computed tomography (CT) and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). In most clinical fields, spine CT and MRI examinations are focused on the region of interest. However, spine is composed of cervical, thoracic, lumbar, sacrum and coccyx and sometimes demands examination of entire structure as well as regional spine depending on disease, patient’s state and physician’s decision. This review considers the available literature to describe when and how full length spine evaluation by CT and MRI is applied according to each spinal disease such as spinal trauma, deformity, infection, axial spondyloarthropathy and metastatic tumor.