MRI of tethered cord syndrome in childhood

Tethered cord syndrome (TCS) is defined as low placement of the spinal cord and thickened film terminale withassociated anomalies. To assess the diagnositc value of magnetic resonance (MR) imaging and to descrive the MRfindings of TCS, MR imagings of 30 children with clinically and radiologically diagnosed TCS were retrospectively analyzed. The MR imaging was performed with a 2.0T superconducting scanner with T1-and T2-weighted spin-echotechniques in sagittal and axial planes. In 21 patients (70.0%), the level of the tip of conus medullaris wasbetween L5 and S2. The causes of cord techering were lipoma or lipomeningomyelocele(76.7%), meningomyelocele(16.7%) and possible thickened filum terminale (3.3%). Associated anomalies included cord syrinx (11 cases), duralectasia (7 cases), Chiari malformations (5 cases) and so forth. Post-operative results including ascent of conusmedullaris level, absence or presence of residual lipoma, etc., could be well delineated in post-operative follow-up studies examined in 10 paitens. Spinal MR proved to be a reliable, noninvasive procedure in the initialevaluation and post-operative follow-up stufies of the TCS.