Cervical XXXX : a comparison of magnetic resonance and myelography.

@entity1 @entity2758 @entity1644 @entity5 @entity602 @entity7181 @entity4720 @entity309 @entity130
Fifty-seven @entity1 with a strong clinical suspicion of cervical @entity602 were studied with body coil magnetic resonance (MR) and conventional myelography or CT myelography. Eight @entity1 were believed to have normal studies with both modalities. There were six @entity1 with @entity1644 ; four with an intramedullary @entity5 ; one with an @entity2758 ; 19 with @entity4720 at multiple levels; eight with @entity4720 at a single level; four with extensive @entity309 ; four with extradural @entity5 ; two with @entity130 ; and one @entity1 with an @entity7181 . In this study, body coil MR was the superior examination for the evaluation of an intramedullary process. It was as diagnostic as myelography in one case of an extramedullary intradural lesion. In @entity1 with extradural disease, body coil MR was the superior study in 45%, equivalent to myelography in 37%, and, although still diagnostic, inferior to myelography in 17%. In 8% of the cases, body coil MR was at best equivocal, whereas myelography was diagnostic. It appears that in technically adequate studies, MR is at least equivalent to myelography in its ability to delineate disease. A superior MR study provides a better appraisal of the size and character of the spinal cord as well as the degree of both anterior and posterior defects on the subarachnoid space and neural structures. In addition, MR is as good as conventional myelography for the identification of extrinsic cervical @entity602 producing cervical @entity602 . Finally, an additional small group of 30 @entity1 were studied with a prototype surface coil to determine its advantages relative to body coil imaging. Each @entity1 had correlative myelography. As with body coil MR, imaging with the surface coil was believed to be more informative than conventional myelography in four @entity1 with intramedullary lesions. The remaining 26 @entity1 suffered from @entity4720 . Surface coil MR was believed to be more informative than myelography in six cases (23%), equivalent to myelography in 19 (73%), and less diagnostic than myelography in one (4%). The improved spatial resolution with the use of the surface coil was believed to increase the accuracy of MR.
