Lumbosacral epidural metastases: CT evaluation and comparison with myelography

Computerized tomography (CT) of lumbosacral region and lumbar myelograms of 100 patients with primary tumours were evaluated independently for evidence of epidural metastases. An attempt was made to predict myelographic abnormalities (or absence of such) on the basis of CT appearance at the spine and spinal canal contents. The overall accuracy of computed tomography was found to be 80%. There was a good correlation with myelography in patients without evidence of epidural lesions (79%). However, in group of patients with positive myelograms, CT was rather unreliable with high number of false negative studies (50%).