Application of myelography in diagnosis and therapy of spontaneous intracranial hypotension / 中华神经科杂志

ABSTRACT

Objective To investigate the application of myelography including digital subtraction angiography myelogram (DSM) and computed tomography myelogram (CTM) in patients with spontaneous intracranial hypotension.Methods The myelography results including DSM and CTM of 10 patients with spontaneous intracranial hypotension form Guangzhou First People's Hospital between January 2013 and June 2018 were retrospectively analyzed.Some patients were treated with targeted epidural blood patch on the basis of myelography.Results Myelography (including DSM and CTM) showed cerebrospinal fluid leakages in all the 10 patients.There were one to 16 leak sites with an average of nine sites (totally 90 leak sites).Forty-two sites (47％) were located in cervical vertebra,19 sites (21％) in thoracic vertebra,22 sites (24％) in lumbar vertebra,and seven sites (8％) in sacral vertebra.On DSM and CTM,cerebrospinal fluid leakage was characterized by the diffusion of contrast agent along one side or the bilateral sides of nerve root,enlargement of the nerve sleeves and paraspinal collections of hyper-demity contrast medium.Two patients whose cerebrospinal fluid leakage occurred in long sections showed more cerebrospinal fluid leakage on CTM than on DSM.Two patients responded well to targeted epidural blood patch on the basis of myelography.The cerebrospinal fluid leakage was completely settled on myelography after the treatment of epidural blood patches.Conclusions Myelography has been shown to assist the diagnosis of spontaneous intracranial hypotension and accurately define the location and extent of cerebrospinal fluid leakages.Myelography can be used to guide targeted epidural blood patch and applied in the reexamination of cerebrospinal fluid leakages after treatment.More cerebrospinal fluid leakages are detected by CTM than by DSM.