Abstract: Objective To study the MRI of cervical spinal cord injury without fracture and dislocation and explore of the apparent diffusion coefficient (ADC) of injured site related to the severity of injury. Methods 46 patients with cervical spinal cord injury without fracture and dislocation and 20 healthy controls were scaned with routine MRI and diffusion weighted imaging. The ADC value of site of injury and grades of Frankel's classification were analyze with the correlation. Results There were 22 cases with spinal cord edema, 8 cases with intramedullary hemorrhage, 14 cases with edema and hemorrhage, 2 cases without abnormal finding. The ADC of controls and patients were (1.05±0.12)×10-3 mm2/s, (1.21±0.23)×10-3 mm2/s (t=0.704, P<0.05). The ADC values positively correlated with the grades of Frankel's classification (r=0.407, P<0.05). Conclusion MRI may help to find the cervical cord injury in those without fracture and dislocation, and the ADC may be resposible to the severity of injury.

Key words: cervical spinal cord injury, magnetic resonance imaging, diffusion weighted imaging, apparent diffusion coefficient, Frankel's classification