Spinal cord infarction: another cause of "lumbosacral polyradiculopathy"

An elderly woman with leg weakness and sensory loss had fibrillation potentials in her legs and at multiple lumbosacral levels of paraspinal muscles. Clinical and myelographic studies showed occlusion of an anterior spinal artery due to an arteriovenous malformation of the spinal cord. EMG aided in the diagnosis and localization of this anterior spinal cord lesion.