Hello Thorny, welcome to the forum.
Sitting or standing MRI is often referred to as a functional MRI. Traditional MRI shows a representation of your spine when you are laying down in a neutral position. That's great if your problem shows up when you are laying down in a neutral positions. Some people have mechanical insufficiencies such that loading their spine in a particular way changes the configuration significantly.
I've seen many presentations at medical conferences about functional MRI. They show very dramatic images of benign configurations on traditional MRI compared to horrible looking images generated when the patient was standing, sitting, or in flexion, extension, or even weighted.
I should say that I've had many clients who have gotten functional MRI and none of them have been different than their normal MRI. I believe that the dramatic stories are rare enough that the insurance companies don't like to see them done and many spine surgeons are reluctant to prescribe them.
MRI is very benign... no radiation... so the issues are mainly financial.
I hope this helps.
All the best,
Mark
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