Dr Carlo Pardo Grand Rounds: Myelitis and Myelopathies, Part 2

RUSK Insights on Rehabilitation Medicine

A special two-part Grand Rounds presentation by Dr. Carlo Pardo, who is a clinical neurologist/pathologist and professor of neurology and pathology at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine.

Part Two

Getting the clinical information, the temporal profile of the patient, along with MRI findings and spinal fluid analysis is important during the analysis of patients presenting with myelopathic syndromes. MRI is one important tool and a very good way to establish the magnitude and localization of spinal cord lesions. One thing he likes to emphasize also is that the presence of myelopathies are not following the classical territories that we know. One thing that is important is that in addition to the blood supply is the blood drainage. The blood drainage of the spinal cord once again is very complex and there is a good and complex pattern of drainage at every segment of the spinal cord. He emphasized for individuals working in rehabilitation that there are other areas of the blood supply that may be affected. Some examples were provided of what he meant. He discussed experiences in their analysis of some cases at his institution where they analyzed 125 patients, attempting to classify the topographic distribution of the lesion.