Article Review 1

Author’s Name

C. Green, J. Butler, S. Eustace, A. Poynton, and J. M. O’Byrne

Article Title

Imaging Modalities for Cervical Spondylotic Stenosis and Myelopathy (2012)

Journal Name

Advances in Orthopedics

1) Bibliography

Green, C., Butler, J., Eustace, S., Poynton, A., & Obyrne, J. M. (2012). Imaging Modalities for Cervical Spondylotic Stenosis and Myelopathy. Advances in Orthopedics, 2012, 1-4. doi:10.1155/2012/908324

2) Purpose of the Article

The purpose of this article was to compare the imaging modalities employed for a central assessment of the cervical spine which should determine the extent and site of canal stenosis and any associated myelopathy.

3) Brief Description of Procedure and Findings/Results

This article summarizes that in CM, MRI can show the pathological spinal cord changes in cervical spondylotic myelopathy as well as the anatomy of spinal cord compression. Signal change not only indicates the presence of myelopathic change but has also been used as a predictor of outcome. Myelopathy is seen as an increased signal within the cord on T2-weighted and a decreased signal on T1-weighted MRI. However, these signal changes are not reciprocal and are likely to represent different underlying pathology like oedema and gliosis. Radiological classifications systems to quantify changes in signal intensity have been developed in an attempt to identify the radiological divide between reversible and irreversible changes.

4) Conclusions and Comments

The article concludes that the development of advanced MRI techniques such as diffusion tensor imaging has shown promise in intramedullary microarchitectural analysis with improved imaging quality and increased lesion identification when compared to conventional MRI.

5) The opinion of the Article

I thought this article was easy to understand. It gave me a better understanding of the diagnostic sensitivity of conventional MR imaging in the evaluation of cervical spondylotic stenosis associated with myelopathy.