What tests should be done for spinal cord embolism syndrome

  Spinal cord embolism syndrome is a series of clinical symptoms and signs caused by various congenital or acquired factors that compress and pull on the spinal cord, resulting in abnormal increase in spinal cord cone tension and cone hypoplasia, mainly including pain, bladder and anal dysfunction, saddle area skin sensory disorder, bilateral lower limb motor sensory disorder, clubfoot and scoliosis.  Spinal cord embolism syndrome should be treated as early as possible. Early and aggressive surgical release is the main treatment method at present. Due to its low incidence and mostly insidious onset, high rate of early misdiagnosis and omission, progressive development of neurological dysfunction and extremely high disability rate, it seriously affects patients’ quality of life. Some patients suffer from long-term urinary retention, neurogenic bladder, which eventually leads to renal failure and endangers the patient’s life.  The following conditions often have the possibility of spinal cord embolism syndrome and require active consultation and examination: 1, with age, there are still symptoms of urine loss, incomplete urination, inability to urinate, difficulty in urination, dry stool, difficulty in defecation and other abnormal urination and defecation, and the trend is gradually increasing; 2, children with scoliosis (hunchback) after birth; 3, abnormal hair, abnormal color, abnormal sinus tracts in the skin of the lumbosacral region (caudal vertebrae);  4, foot deformity, and the tendency to worsen with age; 5, unexplained lower limb muscle atrophy, including one lower limb muscle atrophy and double lower limb muscle atrophy; 6, abdominal ultrasound, CT and other examinations found that the bladder is huge, excluding other causes.  Differential diagnosis of spinal cord embolism syndrome: 1. Congenital spinal cord embolism syndrome: Patients are mostly children or young people with low spinal cord due to abnormal embryonic development. There are many causes of embolism, including fatty spinal cord embolism, spinal membrane bulge and simple embolism. MRI can make the diagnosis, and CT and X-ray can understand the condition of the bone.  2, tumor-induced embolism: congenital tumors in the cone area, such as teratoma, dermatomal or epidermis-like cysts. MRI commonly can show tumor signal.