Mild linear high signal within the anterior cervical spinal cord ?

[KL Aguilar]

My latest MRI shows great improvement. MRIs taken a few days post op showed significant spinal cord swelling; this new one does not. I am able to understand the entire report with the exception of this phrase: mild linear high signal within the anterior cervical spinal cord.

A little background... I had a four-level cervical laminectomy in August. The next morning my arms were virtually paralyzed, and my hands were too but to a lesser extent. The surgeon felt I had had a spinal cord stroke; the other doctors felt my spinal cord had been so severely compressed that it had swollen upon being decompressed. I spent twenty-eight days in the hospital and made some improvement, gaining normal hand and near-normal wrist usage, but having significant deficits in my biceps and deltoids. I left the hospital with a score of 1/2 on a scale of 1 to 5 for my biceps and deltoids; I am now at 2 and 1/2 and continue to improve, albeit extremely slowly.

The surgeon read me the results of the MRI over the phone; he was enthusiastically positive. I was so overwhelmed by all the information that I did not ask about the high signal. I have since gotten a copy of the radiologist's report (and a CD of the MRI). Of course, I will ask him about the high signal during my next appointment, but in the meantime I am hoping someone can share their expertise with me.