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Preoperative MRI may not predict outcomes in patients with MS, CS
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According to the results of a recently published study, preoperative MRI findings were not associated with postoperative outcomes in patients with multiple sclerosis or cervical stenosis.
Researchers retrospectively reviewed data for 48 patients with both multiple sclerosis (MS) and cervical stenosis (CS) with myelopathy who underwent cervical decompression surgery with preoperative MRI between January 1996 and July 2011.
The severity of myelopathy, pre- and postoperatively, was assessed using the modified Japanese Orthopaedic Association (mJOA) scale. The researchers used preoperative imaging to assess stenosis, lesions, signal intensity, extent of lesion and cord atrophy. Average follow-up was 52.9 months.
Within the short-term postoperative follow-up period, 24 patients demonstrated improvement in the mJOA myelopathy score (12 vs. 15.6) and 24 patients had no improvement (14.2 vs. 14.5).
The researchers found a significantly larger percentage of patients in the improvement group had high-intensity lesions on their preoperative MRI compared with patients in the no-improvement group.
By the long-term follow-up period, 18 patients demonstrated improvement vs. 30 patients who showed no improvement. However, the researchers reported no significant differences were observed on preoperative imaging between the patients who improved postoperatively and the patients who did not. – by Robert Linnehan
Disclosure: The authors have no relevant financial disclosures.
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