Table 3.

Surgeon-reported indication for spinal MRI

	All diagnoses (n = 385)	AIS (n = 195)	JIS/IIS(n = 73)	Other diagnoses (n = 117)
Primary indication for MRI
Pain	70	31	3	36
Coronal curve characteristics	63	54	4	5
Associated diagnosis	54	9	2	43
Sagittal curve characteristics	53	38	7	8
Age at presentation	53	5	48	0
Abnormal motor sensory	21	7	1	13
Preoperative	19	13	5	1
Curve magnitude at presentation	16	15	1	0
Other	12	6	0	6
Rapid curve progression	10	9	1	0
Abnormal abdominal reflexes	9	7	1	1
Parental anxiety/insistence	2	0	0	2
Congenital scoliosis*	2	1	0	1
Sacral dimple	1	0	0	1
Radiologist report
Normal	137	72	29	36
Abnormal	248	123	44	81
Clinically consequential finding	103	48	19	36
Consequential intradural finding	61	27	15	19

^*an indication of congenital scoliosis was chosen by the treating physician if there was no confirmed diagnosis of a vertebral anomaly prior to the MRI, but the physician suspected congenital factors in the patients’ abnormal curvature

AIS, adolescent idiopathic scoliosis; JIS, juvenile idiopathic scoliosis; IIS, infantile idiopathic scoliosis