History of the Imaging of Syringomyelia

The diagnostic capabilities of modern magnetic resonance (MR) imaging means that once a decision has been made to investigate a case of suspected myelopathy or radiculopathy, few cases of syringomyelia will be undetected. A delay in diagnosis can still occur if the initial clinical assessment is incorrect, requiring a patient to be tolerant of the difficulties of identifying the less common neurological disorders (see Chap. 18). More often, nowadays, we are confronted with the opposite problem, that of over diagnosis, in cases of small cavities that may be unrelated to the presenting symptoms.