Clinical Characteristics of Non-compressive Myelopathy

ABSTRACT

The authors evaluated those 47 subjects with non-compressive myelopathy who were admitted to Department of Neurology SNUH from January 1988 to December l99Q to know the clinical characteristics and the association with multiple sclerosis. By clinical courses, the patients could be divided into three groups (l) the first group (n&10) who had acute onset and plateau course of the illness with improvement of variable degrees, (2) the second group (n&21) who had chronic progressive course, (3) the third group (n&16) who had relapsing and remitting course. The sensory dysfunctions were present in 9096 of the first and second group and in 93% of the third group respectively, but motor and sphincter dysfunctions were more frequent in the first group (90%) than in the second (68%) or third groups (75%), The level of myelopathy was most common in thoracic spinal cord which was shown in 79% of all patients, especially in 90% of patients of second group. When the authors evaluated those 47 subjects with having non-compressive myelopathy clinically, 9 out of them(19.0%) revealed to have other lesions in brainstem, cerebrum, optic nerve, and were diagnosed to have clinically probable multiple sclerosis. During follow-up periods, 2 additional subjects of the third group developed visual dysfunction and could be diagnosed as multiple sclerosis. So we could make the diagnosis of multiple sclerosis in 11 out of 47 patient(23.0%). Therefore the authors thought that we should take into account the diagnosis of multiple sclerosis in the subjects with the only myelopathy clinically and by diagnostic study. In spite that those rarely developed into multiple sclerosis.