脊髄脱髄，変性疾患の画像診断

Imaging and diagnosis of demyelinating and degenerative diseases of the spinal cord.

はじめに

　多発性硬化症（multiple sclerosis，MS）のような脱髄病変や変性疾患など脊髄内部に生じる病変の画嫁診断には現在磁気共鳴（magnetic resonance）画像が最適であり，ここではこれらの疾患のMR画像から得られる画像所見を中心に述べることにする。

The application of diagnostic imaging modalities to the demyelinating and degenerative diseases of the spinal cord has been much limited before the development of magnetic resonance (MR) imaging, that can provide superior information about the parenchymal change of the cord. Though the brain MR images in one fifth of the patients with spinal multiple sclerosis (MS) are reported to show no abnormality associated with MS, long-term follow-up studies of patients with isolated spinal symptoms by MR imaging indicate a tendency of gradually extensive spread of MS lesions including the brain.