Acute nontraumatic myelopathies.

Acute myelopathies (acute transverse myelopathies) can be divided into two major groups. Vascular myelopathies are caused by aortic disease, surgery, or intrinsic vascular disease of cord vessels. Inflammatory/demyelinative myelopathies include lupus erythematosus, various viral infections, and primary demyelinating disease. Criteria for diagnostic decisions and recent data from magnetic resonance imaging are reviewed.