Radiological diagnosis of developmental disorders of the nervous system and adjacent structures

On the basis of the author's own experiences and drawing on data available in the literature, present possibilities of neuroradiological diagnosis of developmental disorders of the spine and skull, developmental anomalies of meninges of the brain and the spinal cord and of the central nervous system, the brain and the spinal cord are discussed. The rapid development of investigative methods in the past decades has brought about an immense amount of new information gained in the diagnosis of these anomalies and has facilitated their early detection and a more accurate evaluation. The morphological aspect is not, however, the only factor in the estimation of the clinical relevance of these disorders. For this reason not only the morphological, but also the functional relationship of developmental disorders of the nervous system to the adjacent structures is emphasized and, on the other hand, the influence of these anomalies on the nervous system is discussed. Many years' experiences in clinical neurology and problems of manual medicine indicate that these relations may be the cause of the various clinical symptoms. In this respect the presented findings mean a contribution to the treatment of the clinical complaints that are pathogenetically related to developmental disorders.