Potential thresholds of critically increased cardiac-related spinal cord motion in degenerative cervical myelopathy

This study investigates the usefulness of measuring spinal cord motion to diagnose degenerative cervical myelopathy (DCM). DCM is a condition where the spinal cord is compressed in the neck due to age-related changes. The study looks at two groups of DCM patients: those with visible damage on MRI scans (MRI+) and those without (MRI-). The goal is to see if spinal cord motion, measured using a special MRI technique, can help identify patients with nerve damage, especially in the MRI- group where diagnosis can be more challenging. The findings suggest that measuring spinal cord motion could be a valuable tool for early diagnosis and treatment of DCM, particularly in patients who don't show obvious signs of damage on standard MRI scans. This could lead to earlier surgical intervention and better outcomes.

• 1
  Patients with and without visible spinal cord damage on MRI (MRI+ and MRI-) showed similar levels of increased spinal cord motion and compression.
• 2
  In patients without visible spinal cord damage on MRI (MRI-), spinal cord motion measurements were able to identify those with clinical and neurophysiological signs of nerve damage.
• 3
  Specific thresholds for spinal cord motion were identified: 1.67 mm for trunk/lower extremity pin prick score and 1.96 mm for contact heat evoked potentials, indicating potential benchmarks for identifying patients with nerve damage.