CLINICAL-VALUE OF INCREASED MR SIGNAL INT ENSITY DUE TO CERVICARTHROSIC MYELOPATHY

The case of 52 patients with cervical myelopathy were reviewed to dete rmine whether a high signal intensity lesion present on T2 weighted sp in echo imaging appears to be an important indicator for predicting pr ognosis. Preoperatively, there were areas of increased signal intensit y in 23 patients. The lesion was clearly demonstrated on T1 weighted i mages in only one case. Postoperatively, MRI was performed in 9 cases, one showed decreased signal intensity compared to the preoperative le vels, and 8 had no change. The pre and postoperative clinical conditio ns of the patients whose preoperative MR images showed areas of increa se signal intensity were not worse than those patients who did not hav e these areas of increased signal intensity. The postoperative recover y of the eight patients who exhibited no change of the signal intensit y was very satisfactory. The pathophysiology of such an abnormality is presumed to be related to edema, myelomalacia or gliosis. However, th e presence of these areas of high signal intensity does not appear to be an indicator of a bad clinical prognosis.