Spinal Cord Injury: new neuroimaging protocols show that patients have irreversible tissue loss in the spinal cord within 40 days of injury

After a spinal cord injury, the assumption that it takes years for degenerative changes in the spinal cord and the brain to happen is incorrect. A study from the University of Zurich, Uniklinik Balgrist, and University College London (UCL), demonstrates that anatomical changes in the spinal cord and brain above the injury site may occur within 40 days of acute spinal cord injury.

The researchers followed 13 patients with acute spinal cord injuries and used a new type of neuroimaging protocol that can measure the extent of tissue loss in the spinal cord and the brain. Because they can display the effects of spinal cord injury treatments on the central nervous system, new neuroimaging protocols will also be extremely valuable in clinical trials of new treatments.