RESUMO
Vascular malformations of the spinal canal are rare and their clinical appearance is not specific. The authors demonstrate material of 6 patients, who have been diagnosed with magnetic resonance imaging (MR). MR studies in all cases showed tortuous foci of very low signal, compatible with pathological vessels. In 2 patients malformations were also visible on MR angiography and confirmed with conventional angiography. Besides, in 2 cases features of secondary spinal cord oedema (thickening and hyper-intensity on T2-weighted images) have been shown. One patient had spinal cord haematoma which was not visible on MR and has been diagnosed with computed tomography (CT). In the authors' opinion MR is an efficient method of diagnosing and evaluating spinal canal vascular malformations and should be the first diagnostic study in these cases.
