Where do patients with MRI-confirmed single-level radiculopathy experience pain, and what is the clinical interpretability of these pain patterns? A cross-sectional diagnostic accuracy study.

While pain distribution may be an indication of radiculopathy, pain patterns from L5 or S1 nerve root compression only approximated those of sensory dermatomes, and level-specific knowledge about radicular pain patterns did not assist clinicians' diagnostic accuracy of the nerve root impinged. These results indicate that, on their own, pain patterns provide very limited additional diagnostic information about which individual nerve root is affected.