[Magnetic resonance in the evaluation of neurologic complications of cervical spondylosis]. / La resonancia magnética en la evaluación de las complicaciones neurológicas de la espondilosis cervical.

The evaluation of the neurological complications of cervical spondylosis frequently requires contrast myelography. Magnetic resonance (MR) scan would appear as a good alternative approach. We report the MR findings in 12 patients with symptoms and/or signs of spinal cord and radicular disease associated with cervical spondylosis, and we compare them with the conventional studies, including CT and CT assisted myelography. The MR image, weighted in T1, permitted to visualize the compressed spinal cord in the sagittal planes in 4 cases, with enhanced spinal cord signal in 2 of them. In a patient with herniated C5-C6 disk, the sagittal sections directly demonstrated the herniated material in the spinal canal, displacing and compressing the spinal cord. The sequences weighted in T2 demonstrated the degree of stenosis of the cervical canal caused by extradural compression. In these images, the diminished signal of the nucleus pulposus was correlated with degeneration of intervertebral disks. MR was more sensitive than the other studies to detect discal degeneration and herniation, stenosis of the spinal canal, compression of the subarachnoidal space and spinal cord injury.