A fMRI Study of Compressive Spinal Cord

Cervical myelopathy (CM), a chronically compressive spinal cord lesion, is the most common cause of non-traumatic paraparesis/quadriparesis among the elderly. Hong Kong is facing a heavy social economic burden from CM with the rapidly aging population. Surgical decompression is considered as the mainstay of the treatment for CM patients to relieve their symptoms and signs. Yet the surgical outcome is not always satisfactory. There is a pressing need for understanding the exact mechanism of surgical decompression on the recovery of myelopathic cord in order to improve the prognosis of CM patients in near future.This project will evaluate neuronal activities and axon regeneration by longitudinally monitoring at time zero, 3 and 6 month after the surgery in CM patients using UTE, BOLD-fMRI and DTI, and to investigate the relationship of preoperative neuronal activities of myelopathic cord with axon regeneration.