The cervical spinal cord is one of the main sites affected in multiple sclerosis (MS). The objectives of this research were to identify the prevalence of cervical cord affection in a sample of Egyptian MS patients, and to define the predilection sites of affection in relapsing-remitting multiple sclerosis (RRMS) and primary progressive multiple sclerosis (PPMS).
This was a chart review study conducted on MS patients recorded at the MS unit in Alexandria university hospital, Egypt. All patients’ charts with cervical spine Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) were eligible for recruitment to this study.
After exclusion of incomplete records, 246 patients’ records were included (237 RRMS and 9 PPMS). Cervical cord lesions (detected on MRI T2 sequence) were positive in 54.8% of RRMS patients (n=131) and 55.6% of PPMS (n=5). C3 was the most common cervical cord segment affected (62% of all patients), followed by C4 (56%) and C2 (54%). C1, C5, C6 and C8 were affected in 6%, 19.4%, 16.1%, and 10.1% of patients, respectively. C8 was the least affected site (only 1.8% of patients). Of the studied patients, 36.3% had more than 1 cervical cord lesion. The mean number of cord lesions was 1.08±1.16 (ranging from 0 to 5 lesions). There was no statistically significant difference between RRMS and PPMS as regards the cervical cord predilection sites, the number of cervical cord lesions and the lesion multiplicity (P>0.05).
Cervical cord lesions are less common among Egyptian MS patients than their counterparts reported in literature. C3 is the most common site affected and C8 is the least affected site.
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