Clinical characteristics of thoracolumbar intraspinal tumor and diagnostic value of MRI

XIA Yuanjian

doi:10.3969/j.issn.1002-7386.2017.03.005

Abstract：Objective To investigate the clinical characteristics of intraspinal tumor and diagnostic value of MRI . Methods The clinical data and MRI image data about 27 patients who were diagnosed as thoracolumbar intraspinal tumor by surgery and pathological examination in our hospital from January 2014 to December 2015 were retrospectively analyzed . Results The initial symptoms included lower back pain , numbness and weakness in lower limbs , bowel and bladder dysfunction,paresthesia loss and hypalgesia , etc, moreover, these symptoms had a trend of progressive aggravation and top-down diffusion.The pathological examination showed that among 27 patients,there were 5 cases of intramedullary tumors ,3 cases of epidural tumors and 19 cases of intradural tumors in whom there were 26 cases of accurate location by MRI (96.30%),26 cases of accurate qualitation by MRI (77.78%).MRI scanning showed that the other intramedullary tumors presented equal T1,equal long T2 abnormal signals,and epidural extramedullary tumors presented equal low T1 signal, equal high T2 signal, and enhanced scanning showed cyclic or inhomogeneous enhancement .The epidural tumors included hemangiomasand tuberculous granulomas in which hemangiomas showed equal T1 signal and high T2signal, however tuberculous granulomas showed slightly lower T1 signal or equal long T2 signal.Conclusion The early clinical symptoms of thoracolumbar intraspinal tumor are atypical , however ,the positioning accuracy rate and qualitative accuracy rate of MRI in diagnosis of intraspinal tumor are higher ,thus,which is an effective method to diagnose intraspinal tumor .