Diagnosis
A chest X-ray and X-ray of your neck can show if you have a cervical rib.
Other tests including an MRI or CT scan of your neck and upper chest area may help to rule out other causes for your symptoms, such as arthritis in your neck causing compression of the nerves in your neck. Special tests called nerve conduction studies may sometimes be suggested. These look at the electrical activity of your nerves and can help to show which nerves are being compressed.
Special tests known as Doppler studies can also look at blood flow through your arteries and veins.
- sonography for diagnosis in children:
Diagnosis of a cervical rib has traditionally been
performed by using plain radiographs. However,
radiographs limit analysis to ossified bones. They
do not allow analysis of cartilage, which can be
far better imaged by sonography. A diagnosis by
sonography can also allow the avoidance of ionizing radiation.
Sonography allows a quick, radiation-free, and
painless imaging examination that may allow
identification of a benign cause, the cervical rib,
which can rapidly allay clinician, parent, and
patient fears.
- Electrophysiological study is carried out:
electrophysiological study is useful in the diagnosi of neurogenic TOS.
article on this technique-
