Motion X-Ray USA, Inc.

06/29/2022

Here's more facet joint mischief. You don't need a red arrow to see where the problem is on this one. Those holes you see lined up along the length of the spine are supposed to be round to oval-shaped, and they should change shape just a little while the spine is in motion because they contain a spinal nerve which takes up 70+% of the space, and then there's an artery and a vein, and the rest of the space is packed in fat. Every time this person takes their head back, it's like pinching their thumb in the door jam of a car door. It happens because the ligaments which are supposed to maintain the relationship between the bones which make up the joint are torn. Compare this to the normal joints lined up below it. Solution? Try regenerative therapy first, like prolotherapy, stem cells, or PRP, and if that doesn't work, surgery is the only option. The best way to diagnose this is with a motion x-ray- and you need a good one like the one I have to do this. My old machine could never produce a picture like this.

06/07/2022

Big weekend for me coming up. The Arizona Association of Chiropractic is hosting their annual convention at the Gila River Resort and Casino on this weekend, June 11-12, and I am fortunate enough to be one of the presenters. I'm hoping there's a big crowd, and especially doctors who are interested in upping their diagnostic game by taking a look at my Digital Motion X-Ray program. I only get two hours, so there's a lot of pressure on me to compress the highlights of my much bigger seminar into that time frame. I plan to go light on the literature and heavy on the videos my fluoroscope produces. A picture is worth a thousand words, but a motion picture is truly worth millions. Every time a new patient comes in I'm surprised by what x-ray vision can reveal. Superman had it so good!

06/02/2022

Facet joints are paired joints found at every level of your spine. They are found just under the muscles on either side of the bumps of your backbone (spinous processes) on the back of your neck. They consist of two parallel plates of bone, one from the bone above and one from the bone below. They are held together by a ligament called the joint capsule which wraps completely around the joint, keeping the upper piece of bone about 2 mm. distant from its counterpart during motion. It’s common for the joint capsules to get torn during whiplash events. They are known as the “bad actors” amongst the ligaments of the neck because they don’t heal very well and cause chronic pain. The video shows an injury called facet diastasis, in which the two opposing pieces of bone spread and sometimes lose their parallel alignment. MRI never shows this, and it’s rare to find it on plain film x-rays. But a motion x-ray with a good machine never misses it.
The first step in getting well is getting the diagnosis right the first time. If the diagnosis is wrong, then the treatment is wrong, and the patient doesn’t get well. That’s why “failure to diagnose” is a major reason why doctors get sued.

05/19/2022

The Philips Veradius Unity fluoroscope is the best machine available for DMX studies. There are other hospital grade machines out there, but what makes it head and shoulders above the others is its software package. Not to mention the classy operator!😀

05/16/2022

This is an abnormal APOM motion x-ray. The top bone is shifting so much on the lower bone that if the peg of the lower bone wasn't there, you'd think it'd fall right off! This is spinal instability caused by tearing of the ligaments which bind the base of the skull to the top of the spine.

05/16/2022

Spinal instability at the base of the skull is known to produce the craniocervical ("cranio"= head, "cervical"= neck) syndrome, which features postwhiplash headaches of migraine intensity, severe neck pain, and cognitive symptoms which are very similar to concussion symptoms. About 1 million Americans are whiplashed each year and by the most conservative estimates, 33% develop chronic, debilitating symptoms. Some authors think the number is much higher, as in 55-88% chronic. Craniocervical syndrome is easily diagnosed with a A-P ("A-P" just means anterior-posterior, or front to back) open mouth x-ray with bending to either side, while watching for any offset of the top bone on the second bone with motion. Pictured here is a perfectly normal APOM. Notice that the outside edge of the upper bone stays lined up with the outside edge of the lower bone, and the space between the peg in the middle of the picture and the bones on either side of it stay about the same. Next, I'll post an example of an abnormal AP open mouth x-ray.

05/16/2022

George's Line refers to the unbroken curve of alignment of the posterior vertebral bodies. If a vertebra slips forward, as one does here, that means a ligament is torn, and the canal which contains the spinal cord changes shape, pinching the cord. Find the break in the line and watch the bone slip backward as the head goes all the way back, and then forward again as the head rebounds forward. This is spinal instability.

05/16/2022

Motion x-rays show things which can't be shown with static films. This is a left posterior oblique, so it shows the right sided intervertebral foramina, which are holes out of which spinal nerves exit the spine. They are supposed to be oval to round in shape and change only slightly with motion. The spinal nerve takes up 73% of the space, and then there's a vein and an artery, and the rest of the space is packed in fat, for the protection of the nerve. In the neutral or starting position, the holes look great. Watch what happens to the holes when the head is tipped all the way back (extension), and watch how they pop open at the end! At three levels, the nerves are being pinched badly. This would not show up on plain films or on an MRI. The only way to see it is with a motion x-ray.

05/11/2022

Healing starts with finding and diagnosing anatomical and physiological damage correctly. At Motion X-Ray USA, we use videofluoroscopy to diagnose ligament injuries which impact the normal motion of individual spinal segments. We employ a hospital-grade fluoroscope (Philips Veradius Unity) to produce the absolute best imaging possible of the spinal vertebrae and joints in motion. Our primary focus is the cervical spine, which for years has been underdiagnosed after whiplash events, sports-related accidents, and home-related injuries. Our expertise is in the identification of all the relevant ligament damage following trauma which needs attention so that it can be addressed by the appropriate physicians and therapeutic specialists.

Faulty motion at any joint indicates that damage and dysfunction has occurred not only in the vertebrae themselves, but also in their support structures, including the discs, ligaments, joint capsules, tendons, and muscles, as experienced through their sensory/motor neural components. Joints exist so that a part of your body can move; if it hurts to move, the joints have been compromised.
Overwhelming evidence points to the fact that when a person is whiplashed, it is primarily the ligaments which are damaged, leading to a cascade of dynamic events which results in chronic pain syndromes. Therefore, our ultimate mission is to untangle collision events by analyzing the present functional status of the spine through cutting-edge motion imaging. Luckily, for the past 70-80 years, the medical radiologists have taught us that soft tissue injury can be inferred from bony malalignment, and nothing demonstrates that better than a motion x-ray.

As seen in the video animation, any impact can cause severe distress to the cervical spine during the dynamic phase of a whiplash event.

Traditionally, plain film static x-rays have been used to make the diagnosis of spinal instability, but they limit what can be seen and analyzed. Motion x-rays tell us not only what the plain films reveal, but much, much more, because our studies examine the spine from every direction possible, and during the entire range of motion.
Patients deserve to know what’s wrong with them. And they want their doctors to know what’s wrong with them. A doctor who treats a patient without knowing the full extent of a patient’s injuries is guessing, and no patient wants a doctor guessing about their health. Calling whiplash associated pain “nonorganic” in any chronic whiplash patient without first ruling out pathology with a videofluoroscopic examination has no basis in fact. At Motion X-Ray USA, our goal is to take the guesswork out of diagnosis for the best patient outcomes possible.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jgMdL7vEga8

Whiplash is a term used to describe a neck injury which is usually caused by an abrupt, forceful motion of the cervical spine, and the supporting muscles and...