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Understanding your scan
Radiology reports are written for doctors, not patients, and a single unfamiliar word can turn a routine result into a sleepless night. Search a term from your MRI or CT report below and read what it means in plain language, including the everyday words that sound alarming but usually are not.
27 terms.
How the scan works
- MRI
- A scan that uses a strong magnet and radio waves, not X-rays, to build detailed pictures of soft tissues such as the brain, spinal cord and discs. It is painless but noisy, and you lie still inside a tunnel.
- CT scan
- A scan that uses X-rays taken from many angles and combined by a computer into cross-section images. It is very fast, which makes it useful in emergencies and for looking at bone and bleeding.
- Contrast (gadolinium / dye)
- A substance given through a vein that makes certain tissues or blood vessels show up more clearly. MRI usually uses gadolinium; CT uses an iodine-based dye. It is used when the extra detail helps answer the question being asked.
- With and without contrast
- Two sets of images, one before the dye and one after. Comparing them shows how tissues take up the contrast, which can help tell different processes apart.
- T1, T2 and FLAIR
- Different MRI settings that make the same anatomy look different, so radiologists can compare them. On one setting fluid looks bright, on another it looks dark. Seeing several is normal and does not mean several problems.
- DWI (diffusion-weighted imaging)
- An MRI setting that is very sensitive to sudden changes in tissue, especially a recent stroke. It is a standard part of many brain scans.
Brain terms
- Lesion
- A general word for any area that looks different from the tissue around it. It is deliberately neutral: a lesion can be anything from a harmless spot to something that needs treatment. The word alone says nothing about how serious it is.
- On its own, "lesion" is not a diagnosis. Its meaning depends entirely on what the rest of the report and your doctor say about it.
- Mass
- An area of tissue that takes up space where it should not. A mass can be a cyst, a benign growth or a tumour; the report and further tests describe which.
- Enhancement
- Tissue that brightens after contrast dye is given. It shows where blood supply or the normal barrier around the brain is altered, which helps characterise a finding.
- Oedema
- Extra fluid in the tissue, seen as brighter areas on certain sequences. It is the tissue equivalent of swelling and can surround many kinds of finding.
- Atrophy
- A reduction in the volume of tissue. Some atrophy is a normal part of ageing; whether it matters depends on the amount, the pattern and the person.
- A mention of mild or age-appropriate atrophy is often a normal finding for an adult, not a disease.
- Small vessel disease / white matter changes
- Small bright spots in the brain’s wiring, very common with age and with blood-pressure history. Radiologists note them routinely.
- These are extremely common on scans of older adults and are frequently reported even when a person feels completely well. Your doctor reads them in context.
- Ischaemia / infarct
- Tissue that has been damaged by a loss of blood supply. "Acute" means recent; "old" or "chronic" means from the past. The report usually specifies which.
- Haemorrhage
- Bleeding within or around the brain. CT is very good at showing it, which is why a CT is often the first scan after a head injury or a sudden severe headache.
Spine terms
- Disc bulge
- A disc between two vertebrae that extends a little beyond its normal edge. Bulges are extremely common and are frequently seen on scans of people with no pain at all.
- A disc bulge is one of the most common findings on a spine MRI and is often unrelated to symptoms. It rarely means surgery.
- Disc protrusion / herniation
- The soft centre of a disc pushing further out than a bulge, sometimes pressing on a nearby nerve. Many settle over weeks to months with time, movement and simple measures.
- Stenosis
- Narrowing of the space the spinal cord or nerves pass through. It is graded from mild to severe, and mild narrowing is common with age and often causes no trouble.
- Foraminal narrowing
- Narrowing of the small side openings where a nerve root leaves the spine. When it presses on a nerve it can cause pain or tingling along that nerve’s path.
- Degenerative changes / spondylosis
- The general wear that spines accumulate over a lifetime: discs thinning, small bony spurs, roughened joints. It is the spine equivalent of grey hair.
- Degenerative change is expected in most adult spines and does not by itself explain or predict pain. It is a description of ageing, not a diagnosis of the cause.
- Nerve root
- A nerve as it branches off the spinal cord and leaves the spine to supply an arm or a leg. When a report says a root is "compressed" or "impinged", it means something is pressing on it.
- Cord signal change / myelopathy
- A change in how the spinal cord itself looks on the scan, which can suggest the cord is under pressure or irritated. Reports flag it because it is more significant than changes in the discs or joints alone.
- Facet joint
- The small paired joints at the back of each spinal level that guide movement. Like other joints they can become arthritic, which the report may call facet arthropathy.
Report language
- Unremarkable / normal
- Nothing significant was found for the question being asked. "No acute abnormality" means nothing new or urgent, though long-standing or minor findings may still be listed.
- These are the words you are hoping to see. They mean the scan did not show a significant or urgent problem.
- Incidental finding
- Something noticed by chance that was not what the scan was looking for. Many incidental findings are harmless and simply need noting or a routine follow-up.
- Incidental findings are common and usually minor. Your doctor decides whether any of them needs action.
- Age-appropriate
- The finding is what would be expected for someone of your age. It is a reassuring phrase that puts a change in context rather than treating it as a disease.
- Clinical correlation is advised
- A standard note asking the referring doctor to match the scan with your actual symptoms and examination. The scan is one piece of information, not the whole picture.
- Follow-up / interval imaging
- A suggestion to repeat the scan after a set time to see whether anything changes. Watching over time is a normal and often reassuring way to manage a minor finding.
Sources
- MRI scan NHS, 2022
- CT scan NHS, 2022
- Back pain (imaging and common findings) NHS, 2023Basis for the "common and often symptomless" framing of disc and degenerative terms.
Last reviewed: 2026-07-16