PT  - JOURNAL ARTICLE
AU  - M.C. Mabray
AU  - J. Starcevich
AU  - J. Hallstrom
AU  - M. Robinson
AU  - M. Bartlett
AU  - J. Nelson
AU  - A. Zafar
AU  - H. Kim
AU  - L. Morrison
AU  - B.L. Hart
TI  - High Prevalence of Spinal Cord Cavernous Malformations in the Familial Cerebral Cavernous Malformations Type 1 Cohort
AID  - 10.3174/ajnr.A6584
DP  - 2020 Jun 01
TA  - American Journal of Neuroradiology
PG  - 1126--1130
VI  - 41
IP  - 6
4099  - http://www.ajnr.org/content/41/6/1126.short
4100  - http://www.ajnr.org/content/41/6/1126.full
SO  - Am. J. Neuroradiol.2020 Jun 01; 41
AB  - BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE: Cavernous malformations occur most often in the brain but can occur in the spinal cord. Small studies of patients with familial cerebral cavernous malformations suggested a prevalence of spinal cord cavernous malformations of 20%–42%. We aimed to review our familial cohort and prospectively estimate the prevalence of spinal cord cavernous malformations.MATERIALS AND METHODS: We initially reviewed our familial cerebral cavernous malformations cohort for spinal cord cavernous malformations and reviewed clinical spine MR imaging examinations for sequence sensitivity. We then prospectively performed research MR imaging of the spinal cord in 29 patients from the familial cohort to estimate the prevalence.RESULTS: Gradient-based sequences identified the most spinal cord cavernous malformations on clinical MR images, forming the basis for developing our screening MR imaging. Screening spinal cord MR imaging demonstrated a prevalence of 72.4%, and a positive correlation with patient age and number of cerebral cavernous malformations.CONCLUSIONS: Spinal cord cavernous malformations occur commonly in the familial cerebral cavernous malformation population. Gradient-based sequences are the most sensitive and should be used when spinal cord cavernous malformations are suspected. This study establishes the prevalence in the familial population at around 70% and supports the idea that this condition is a progressive systemic disease that affects the entire central nervous system.CMcavernous malformationCCMcerebral cavernous malformationSCCMspinal cord cavernous malformationMEDICMulti-Echo Data Image Combination