Clinical and neurovisual study of syringomyelia

One hundred fifty one patients with syringomyelia of different duration were studied using magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) An association between syringomyilia cavitation and Arnold-Chiari malformation as well as cerebellar tonsils location was found No definite relationship between syringomyelia course and degree of cerebellum ectopia was detected With disease duration increasing, cross dimensions of spinal cord cavitation are getting smaller This may be due to spontaneous cavitations collapse. The hypothesis is supported by flattened out cavitation phenomenon found by MRI on the axial spinal cord sections of 39 patients Such deformation corresponds to spinal cord atrophy developing during long-term disease course.