Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) diagnostic accuracy in acute spinal column injuries

Background: road side accidents,fall from high altitude and gun shots etc. can lead to the severe,life threat alarming spinal cord damages. magnetic resonance imaging plays an important role in the assessment of spinal injuries. the spinal cord injuries can be detected by mri technique. aim: to establish diagnostic accuracy of mri in acute spinal column injuries so that neurosurgical professionals could be provided with a non-invasive valuable tool for preoperative diagnosis and planning of different spinal cord injuries. methods: a total of 38 patients of acute spinal injury and age 20-40 years of either gender were included in the study. patients with h/o degenerative or metastatic spinal injury were excluded. all the patients were then underwent mri of the spinal column. the mri findings were recorded as positive and negative for any spinal injury. magnetic resonance imaging findings were correlated with operative findings which were performed in neurosurgery ward. results: mean age was 28.35±7.67 years. out of these 38 patients,81.58% were male and 18.42% were females with ratio of 4.4:1 mri supported the diagnosis of acute spinal column injury in 29 patients,out of which,28 (true positive) had spinal column injury and 01 (false positive) had no spinal column injury on operation. the sensitivity,specificity,predictive values,and diagnostic accuracy of mri in acute spinal column injury was 96.55%,88.89%,96.55%,and 94.74% respectively. conclusion: this study concludes that magnetic resonance imaging (mri) is a highly sensitive and accurate non-invasive modality,and has dramatically improved our ability of diagnosing acute spinal column injuries.