Morphometry of the cervical spinal cord and its relation to pathology in cases with compression myelopathy.

The purpose of this study was to determine whether or not computerized tomography myelography (CTM) gave an actual size and shape of the cervical spinal cord, and whether such dimensions reflected pathology of the spinal cord in cases suffering from compression myelopathy. Spinal cord transverse area and compression ratio (sagittal diameter divided by transverse diameter) were measured as indicators of spinal cord morphology. As a basis for this study, we first performed CTM of cadaveric cervical columns and compared the actual dimensions of the spinal cord of the cadaveric specimens with the CTM image. Second, the correlations between these dimensions and pathology of the affected spinal cord were investigated. The results showed that CTM provided a precise image of the actual cross-section of the spinal cord. In 12 cadaveric specimens of cervical myelopathy examined, the transverse area and compression ratio were in good correlation with the severity of observed pathological changes.