Abstract
Twenty-four patients with prior cervical spinal cord injury resulting in quadriplegia were evaluated with magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) long after their initial injury.
Lesions within the cord on T1-weighted images were grouped into the following four categories, large, middle, small, and atrophic type.
Two cases of delayed neurological deterioration occurring a few years after spinal cord injury were presented. Both of these had low signal intensity of the small type in T1-weighted images. On T2-weighted images, high signal intensity within the cord was identified corresponding to areas of low signal intensity.
These appeared to be cystic lesions.
Our results suggest that internal fixation is indicated with a small type in the T1-weighted images even if no bone injury is apparent.
