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Unsure about an MRI result in Sweden
This page is for you if you have an MRI report in hand — often in Swedish, often listing findings you cannot interpret — and you are not sure whether it explains your symptoms or what should follow from it. The most useful thing to understand first is that a finding and an explanation are not the same thing.
Quick answer
An MRI report describes what is visible; it does not establish what is causing your pain. Degenerative changes, disc bulges and small tears are common in people with no symptoms at all, so a finding becomes meaningful only when a specialist links it to your history and examination. Degenerative findings are common in people with no symptoms at all, so establishing whether a finding explains your pain is a clinical judgement made from the images together with your history and examination — not something the report itself states.
Why findings and symptoms diverge so often
Modern imaging is sensitive. It shows changes that accumulate with age in most people, whether or not those people have pain. Studies of asymptomatic adults consistently find disc degeneration, bulges, rotator-cuff changes and meniscal tears in substantial proportions of people with no complaints at all.
The consequence for you is practical. A report describing several findings is not a report describing several problems. The question that matters — does this finding explain your symptoms — is answered by combining the images with your history and a physical examination. It is not answerable from the report in isolation, and a service that offers to interpret a scan without either is offering less than it appears to.
Which specialist should look at it?
Two different services exist, and most people who say they want "a second opinion on my MRI" want the second one: a formal re-reading of the images by a specialist in radiology, or a clinical assessment of what the findings mean for your symptoms and treatment by the treating specialty. Choosing the wrong one costs a consultation. Which specialist answers which question →
How Andrabedomning.se fits in
Andrabedomning.se is an independent Swedish patient guidance service. You describe your situation in a request — in English — and a person reads it and replies, normally within one working day, with information about relevant specialist contact. If we cannot help, you get an explanation of why and where to turn instead. We do not diagnose or provide medical care. Records go directly to the care provider, never to us.
Sending a request is free and commits you to nothing. If we can coordinate a suitable specialist contact, two amounts are disclosed to you in writing before anything is booked: our coordination fee (samordningsavgift), which is our only source of revenue, and the specialist's fee, which is set by the care provider and paid directly to them. We take no commissions or referral fees from specialists or clinics. How it works in full →
Andrabedomning.se coordinates the contact. The medical assessment is made by the specialist and care provider you choose.
Frequently asked questions about MRI results
My MRI report lists several findings. Does that mean several problems?
Not necessarily. An MRI report describes what is visible, and a great deal is visible in adults without symptoms — disc bulges, degenerative changes, small tears. A finding becomes a diagnosis only when it explains the symptoms you actually have. That link is a clinical judgement made by the treating specialist, not something the report itself asserts.
Can I have the images re-read rather than have a new consultation?
Yes, and the two are different services. A formal re-reading of the images, producing a new written report, is done by a specialist in radiology. A clinical assessment of what the findings mean for your symptoms, your function and your treatment options is done by the treating specialist — for a joint problem, an orthopaedist. Which you need depends on whether you doubt what is on the images or what is being concluded from them.
How do I get a copy of my images, not just the report?
Ask the provider that performed the examination for both the report and the image files. Images are stored in the regional imaging archive and are normally released to you or transferred to another provider on request. Give yourself time — this is often the slowest step in arranging a second opinion, and it is worth starting before you book anything.
The report is in Swedish and I cannot read it. What now?
Radiology reports are dense even for Swedish speakers, and machine translation handles the terminology poorly. Two practical routes: request an explanation from the provider — chapter 3, sections 6 and 7 of the Patient Act require information to be adapted to your linguistic background and the provider to make sure you understood — or bring the report to a consultation held in English and go through it there.
Does a second opinion require a new scan?
Usually not. Repeating an MRI adds cost and delay and rarely changes the picture within a short interval, so a second assessment normally works from the existing images and report. A new scan becomes relevant if the existing one is old relative to a change in your symptoms, or if it did not cover the region now in question.
Who decides whether the finding explains my pain?
The specialist you consult, based on the images together with your history and examination. That is the whole substance of the question, and it is not answerable from the report alone — which is why sending an MRI report to be interpreted in isolation, without examination or history, gives a weaker answer than it appears to.
Sources
- Brinjikji et al., "Systematic Literature Review of Imaging Features of Spinal Degeneration in Asymptomatic Populations", American Journal of Neuroradiology (2015) — the prevalence of degenerative findings in people without symptoms: 33 studies, 3,110 asymptomatic individuals, with disc degeneration rising from 37% at age 20 to 96% at age 80 and disc bulge from 30% to 84% across the same span.
- 1177 — Magnetkameraundersökning (MRI) — what an MRI examination involves and how results are communicated to the patient.
- Patient Act (patientlagen 2014:821), chapter 3, sections 6–7 — the duty to adapt information to the patient's linguistic background and to ensure the patient has understood it.
- 1177 — Din journal — the patient's access to their own medical records, including imaging reports.
Editorially produced by Andrabedomning.se from the primary sources above. Sources last checked: 4 August 2026.
Related pages
- Orthopaedic second opinion in Sweden
When imaging questions turn into surgical decisions.
- Radiologist or orthopaedist?
Which specialist answers which question about a scan.
- Getting your medical records and images
The practical steps, and why to start them early.
- Before a knee replacement
Where a scan finding and the symptoms most often fail to line up.
Have an imaging result you want reviewed?
Describe your situation in a few sentences and tell us which assessment or recommendation you have already received. Sending a request is free. If we can coordinate a suitable specialist contact, our coordination fee and the specialist's separate fee are disclosed in writing before you decide whether to book.
In an emergency, call 112. For non-urgent medical advice, call 1177.