spinal cord disease; myelopathy (disease/disorder primarily affecting spinal cord)

Etiology

• spinal cord compression
• non-compressive myelopathy
  • demyelination
    • multiple sclerosis
    • neuromyelitis optica
    • transverse myelitis
  • inflammation
  • infection
  • nutritional
    • vitamin B12 deficiency
    • copper deficiency
  • toxic/metabolic
  • vascular
    • infarctions
      • generally involve anterior spinal artery
      • result in sudden weakness, sparing sensation
    • dural arteriovenous fistula
  • genetic

Clinical manifestations

• often associated with a disinct sensory level below which sensation may be altered or lost
  • this sensory level often correlates with anatomic level of spinal cord injury
• corticospinal tract injury
  • spastic paresis or paralysis
  • weakness, hyperreflexia, muscle spasticity
  • extensor plantar response (Babinski's sign)
• involvement of the lower cord & nerve roots
  • cauda equina syndrome

Radiology

• spinal cord imaging (magnetic resonance imaging)
  • directed by sensory level from neurologic examination

More general terms

• central nervous system (CNS) disease
• spine disease; vertebral disorder

More specific terms

• anterior spinal artery compression syndrome
• cauda equina syndrome
• cervical myelopathy
• Guillain-Barre syndrome (GBS)
• intraspinal abscess
• myelitis
• neurosyphilis (dementia paralytica, syphilitic paresis)
• progressive bulbar paralysis (Duchenne syndrome)
• spinal cord injury (SCI)
• spinal cord lesion
• spinal dural arteriovenous fistula
• spinal shock
• spinal stenosis
• subacute combined degeneration of spinal cord; Lichtheim's disease; Putnam-Dana Syndrome
• syringomyelia
• transverse myelopathy
• vacuolar myelopathy

Additional terms

• spinal cord compression; compressive myelopathy