Clinical and autopsy findings in spinal cord compression due to metastatic disease

Clinical and autopsy findings are described in 14 patients who had suffered from spinal cord compression due to metastatic disease. All patients were clinically examined at the time of diagnosis of spinal cord compression, and followed until death. Autopsy studies of the cord revealed microscopic tumors similar to the primary tumor in seven cases. There were white matter lesions varying from slight to severe loss of myelin in seven cases. A correlation between the myelin damage and the patients ambulation just before death was found. Copyright 1998 Lippincott Williams & Wilkins