Hanwen Liu1, Erin MacMillan 1, Emil Ljungberg1, Burkhard Mädler2, Shannon Kolind 1, Marcel Dvorak1, David Li1, Alex MacKay1, John Kramer1, Cornelia Laule1, and Armin Curt3
1University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC, Canada, 2University of Bonn, Bonn, Germany, 3Balgrist University, Zürich, Switzerland
Cervical
spondylotic myelopathy (CSM) is a major cause of spinal cord dysfunction. To
better understand the pathophysiology underlying CSM, we used somatosensory evoked
potentials (SSEPs) and myelin water imaging to study patients with CSM and healthy
controls. Significant differences were found in the myelin water fraction (MWF)
of the dorsal column between subjects classified as normal or pathological based
on SSEPs. A strong correlation between tibial SSEP latency and MWF was found in
CSM. Our findings suggest that MWF can monitor cervical spinal cord demyelination
and may be a valuable tool to assess clinical interventions in spinal cord
injury.
