The diagnostic value of magnetic resonance imaging measurements for assessing cervical spinal canal stenosis

Abstract

OBJECT The authors investigated the relevance of 2D MRI measurements for the diagnosis of critical cervical spinal canal stenosis. Among patients who had sustained a minor cervical spine trauma, they compared MRI measurements of the cervical spine between those with acute cervical spinal cord injury (CSCI) and those without. They also investigated the correlation between the MRI measurements and the severity of CSCI as well as classification accuracy concerning the diagnosis of critical spinal canal stenosis for acute CSCI after a minor trauma. METHODS The authors conducted a single-center retrospective radiological case-control study of patients who had sustained CSCI after a minor trauma to the cervical spine from January 2000 to August 2010. The controls were patients who had sustained a cervical trauma without clinical or radiological signs of cervical spinal cord pathology. On axial T2-weighted MR images, the following were measured: the transverse spinal canal and cord area, the transverse and sagittal cord diameter, and the sagittal canal diameter of the cervical spine (C3–7). Using these measurements, the authors calculated the cord-canal-area ratio by dividing the transverse cord area by the transverse canal area, the space available for the cord by subtracting the sagittal canal diameter from the sagittal cord diameter, and the compression ratio by dividing the transverse cord diameter by its sagittal diameter. The severity of CSCI was assessed by using the motor index scores of 10 key muscles at different time points (initially, 1, 3, and 12 months after injury) obtained from the clinical records. The intra- and interobserver reliability of the MRI measurements, intra- and intergroup differences, and correlations between variables were also investigated. Receiver operating characteristic curves were calculated for evaluating the classification accuracy of the imaging variables for CSCI. RESULTS Data for 52 CSCI patients and 77 control patients were analyzed. The intra- and interobserver reliability regarding the MRI measurements ranged from good (0.72) to perfect (0.99). Differences between the CSCI group and the control group were significant (p < 0.001) for all parameters, except for the cord area. The most prominent differences between the groups existed for the spinal canal area, cord-canal-area ratio, and space available for the cord. The classification accuracy was best for the cord-canal-area ratio and the space available for the cord; areas under the curve were 0.99 (95% CI 0.97–1.0) and 0.98 (95% CI 0.95–0.99), respectively. There was no significant (p > 0.05) correlation between any of the imaging parameters and the motor index score at any time point. CONCLUSIONS The cord-canal-area ratio (> 0.8) or the space available for the cord (< 1.2 mm) measured on MR images can be used to reliably identify patients at risk for acute CSCI after a minor trauma to the cervical spine. However, there does not seem to be any association between spinal canal imaging characteristics and the severity of or recovery from CSCI after a minor trauma.