MRI of Neural & Vascular Injury Pattern in Contusion Spinal Cord Injury

Tsang-Wei Tu^1,2, Philip V. Bayly¹, Sheng-Kwei Song²

The mechanic trauma results in a disruption of neural and vascular structures in spinal cord injury. Previous studies illustrated that the disruption of blood vessels results in the intraparenchymal hemorrhage at the epicenter and away from the impact site. The epicenter white matter surrounding the hemorrhagic gray matter shows a variety of degenerative lesions, including disrupted myelin, axonal and periaxonal swelling. However, little was known whether the white matter injury occurs concomitantly with the distal vascular disruption. By using diffusion- and T2*-weighted imaging, the current study provides direct evidence that vascular and white matter injury simultaneously appear at the distal site.