Clinical radioisotope investigations in hydrosyringomyelia and myelodysplasia

Abstract

Radioisotope ventriculography was applied clinically in myelodysplastic hydromyelia in 3 groups of patients: 2 patients with normal ventricles, 2 with obstructive hydrocephalus, and 16 with myelodysplasia. In the myelodysplastic group, radioassay in 1 patient demonstrated flow of radioisotope down the hydromyelic cavity. Twenty scintigraphic studies on 16 myelodysplastic patients showed hydromyelia was present in all patients with spontaneously compensated hydrocephalus but in none of those with functional ventricular shunts. This relation between the hydromyelia and disordered ventricular hydrodynamics supported the Gardner hypothesis of myelodysplasia. Radioisotope ventriculography appeared a safe and useful method of diagnosing hydrosyringomyelia and evaluating treatment by means of ventricular decompression.