Editors' note: Progressive neurodegeneration following spinal cord injury: Implications for clinical trials

Abstract

In an effort to determine radiographic predictors of clinical outcome following traumatic spinal cord injury (SCI), Ziegler et al. compared early and late brain/spine MRI findings between patients with SCI and healthy controls. While early signs of atrophy throughout white matter tracts herald poorer functional recovery in patients with acute SCI in this case-control study, Dr. Domingue reflects on the recovery—and eventual regression—he has seen among patients with spondylotic myelopathy. As the investigators from the case-control study acknowledge, the pathophysiology that underlies traumatic and nontraumatic SCI may result in variable patterns of disease progression. The authors emphasize that their observations on the MRI changes following spinal cord injury may provide outcome measures to study in clinical trials. In an effort to determine radiographic predictors of clinical outcome following traumatic spinal cord injury (SCI), Ziegler et al. compared early and late brain/spine MRI findings between patients with SCI and healthy controls. While early signs of atrophy throughout white matter tracts herald poorer functional recovery in patients with acute SCI in this case-control study, Dr. Domingue reflects on the recovery—and eventual regression—he has seen among patients with spondylotic myelopathy.