When a lumbar MRI comes across, the easy move is to grade the discs and stop.
But the discs are not the only thing on that scan that can drive a patient's pain. The rib and vertebra joints in the back are a commonly missed source of pain. A nerve can get pinched by a small muscle slip well outside the disc space. And the study quietly shows the kidneys, the aorta, and other structures that can mimic back pain entirely.
I comment on what I can see, even when it was not the reason for the scan, because a clinician building a differential benefits enormously from knowing what is normal and what is not.
Reading only the discs answers a smaller question than the patient actually asked.