Mayo Clinic Health Manager
Get free personalized health guidance for you and your family.
Get Started
About our e-newsletters
- Free e-newsletters
- Mayo Clinic expertise
- We do not share your e-mail address
Housecall, our weekly general-interest e-newsletter, keeps you up to date on a wide variety of health topics with timely, reliable, practical information, recipes, blogs, questions and answers with Mayo Clinic experts and more. Our biweekly topic-specific e-newsletters also include blogs, questions and answers with Mayo Clinic experts, and other useful information that will help you manage your health.
Housecall Archives
Mayo Clinic Housecall
Stay up to date on the latest health information.
What you get
- Free weekly e-newsletter
- Mayo Clinic expertise
- Recipes, tools and other helpful information
- We do not share your e-mail address
Tests and diagnosis
By Mayo Clinic staffTo diagnose syringomyelia, your doctor will begin by asking about your medical history and doing a complete physical examination.
If your doctor suspects syringomyelia, you'll likely undergo a magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scan of your spine and spinal cord. An MRI is the most reliable tool for diagnosing syringomyelia.
Using magnetic fields and radio waves, an MRI produces 3-D, high-resolution images of your spine and spinal cord. If a syrinx has developed within your spinal cord, your doctor will be able to see it on an MRI. A dye or contrast medium can be injected for the test, and once it travels to your spine, it can enhance the MRI images. An MRI is a safe and painless test. Over time, repeat MRIs can be used to monitor the progression of syringomyelia.
In some cases, syringomyelia may be discovered incidentally when a spine MRI or computerized tomography (CT) scan is done for other reasons.
- Sung WS. Spontaneous regression of syringomyelia — review of the current aetiological theories and implications for surgery. Journal of Clinical Neurosciences. 2008;15:1185.
- NINDS syringomyelia information page. National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke. http://www.ninds.nih.gov/disorders/syringomyelia/syringomyelia.htm. Accessed Jan. 27, 2009.
- Hauser SL, et al. Diseases of the spinal cord. In: Fauci AS, et al. Harrison's Principles of Internal Medicine. 17th ed. New York, NY: McGraw-Hill; 2008. http://www.accessmedicine.com/content.aspx?aID=2904462&searchStr=syringomyelia. Accessed Jan. 27, 2009.
- What is syringomyelia? American Syringomyelia Alliance Project. http://www.asap.org/syringomyelia. Accessed Jan. 27, 2009.
- Aminoff MJ. Nervous system disorders. In: McPhee SJ, et al. Current Medical Diagnosis & Treatment, 2009. New York, NY: McGraw-Hill; 2009. http://www.accessmedicine.com/content.aspx?aID=13162&searchStr=syringomyelia. Accessed Jan. 27, 2009.
- Aminoff MJ, et al. Disorders of somatic sensation. In: Aminoff MJ, et al. Clinical Neurology. 6th ed. New York, NY: McGraw-Hill; 2005. http://www.accessmedicine.com/content.aspx?aID=2082386&searchStr=syringomyelia. Accessed Jan. 27, 2009.
- Cavanaugh J. Exercise concepts for individuals with syringomyelia. American Syringomyelia Alliance Project. http://www.asap.org/articles/Cavanaugh.html. Accessed Jan. 27, 2009.
