Gross quantitative measurements of spinal cord segments in human

Abstract

Study design: Anatomical measurement. Objective: To obtain quantitative anatomical data on each spinal cord segment in human, and determine the presence of correlations between the measures. Setting: Department of Rehabilitation Medicine, Pusan National University Hospital, Pusan, Korea. Methods: A total of 15 embalmed Korean adult human cadavers (13 males, two females; mean age 57.3 years) were used. The length of each cord segment was defined as the root attachment length plus the upper inter-root length. After performing a total vertebrectomy, a transverse cut was made at the approximate proximal and distal point of each segment from segment C3 to S5. Sagittal and transverse diameters at the proximal end of each segment, and cross-sectional area, height, and volume of the segment were measured. Results: The transverse diameter was largest at segment C5, and decreased progressively to segment T8. However, the sagittal diameter of each segment did not change distinctly with the segment. The cervical and lumbar enlargements were determined by the transverse diameters of the segments. Segment C5 had the largest cross-sectional area, at 75.0 mm 2 . Segment T6 was the longest, averaging 22.4 mm in length. The longest segment in the cervical spinal cord was segment C5, at 15.5 mm, and segment L1 in the lumbar spinal cord. The volume was largest at segment C5, with a value of 1173.9 mm 3 . Conclusions: We found characteristic quantitative differences in the values of the parameters measured in the thoracic spinal cord compared to those measured in the cervical and lumbar or lumbosacral spinal cords. These measurements of spinal cord segments appear to provide valuable and practical standard quantitative features and may provide basic data for understanding the morphometric characteristics relevant to pathophysiologic conditions of the spinal cord.

A New Acute Impact-Compression Lumbar Spinal Cord Injury Model in the Rodent

“…In the rat, however, the hindlimb muscles are innervated by a longer motor pool spread throughout more spinal cord segments than in humans. 31,34 The H-reflex confirms the presence of an upper motor neuron injury in this model, which is well described throughout the human and animal literature. 22 We observed significant at-level sensory alterations after clip impact-compression injury, which mimics similar outcomes seen in many lumbar root avulsion models.…”

Single fraction radiosurgery/stereotactic body radiation therapy (SBRT) for spine metastasis: A dosimetric comparison of multiple delivery platforms

“…The spinal cord was contoured as a structure approximately 7 mm in diameter, contained centrally within the bony limits of the spinal canal. The contoured cord was designed to reflect the average cord size of our previous ten radiosurgery spine patients who were planned using fusion of MRI or CT myelogram as well as measurements reported in the literature 9. To ensure comparability, each contour and image set was communicated unaltered from Eclipse to each of the other treatment planning systems through DICOM‐RT.…”

The effect of spinal osteotomies on spinal cord tension and dural buckling: a cadaveric study

“…Any of these factors could explain the observed differences between our study and that of Grande et al 8 While the myelograms obtained during this study do not allow visualization of the spinal cord, previous research has demonstrated that the diameter of the human spinal cord at T-10 ranges from about 5 mm to about 9.5 mm in the transverse plane and from about 4 mm to about 8.5 mm in the sagittal plane. 17 The minimal canal width measured in this study (7.73 mm after closure of the VCR) is within a range that may leave insufficient room for the spinal cord and could result in damage to the spinal cord itself. Although saline was injected into the thecal sac to simulate CSF in our model, such an approximation fails to account for the dynamic CSF pulsations seen in vivo.…”