The relationship between the area of the compressed spinal cord and the degree of clinical affliction in spondylogenic cervical myelopathy is controversial. The authors assessed the transverse area of the spinal cord in a group of 34 patients with spondylogenic cervical myelopathy and correlated it with the degree of functional deficiency. The area of the spinal cord was in the whole group on average 64.8 ± 7.9 mm 2 which differs statistically from findings in the normal population. A relationship was found between the clinical condition expressed by a modified scale of the Japanese orthopaedic association and the size of the transverse area of the spinal cord. This relationship is less close in mild functional deficiencies and increases when in more severe, deficiencies. The authors describe also a new method of assessment of the transverse area of the spinal cord by magnetic resonance in the T2 weighted mode. The images were processed by automatic analysis. In the first stage they were scanned and s ubsequently segmentation of the gray images was made according to criteria of brightness tolerance. Thus the outline of the object was obtained – i.e. of the spinal cord and spinal canal. The binar b itmap which was thus obtained was subjected in a medium of MATLAB to automatic analysis where the curve differen- tiated by colouration is closed. The result of the analysis is assessment of the basic geometrical parameters of the image of the spinal cord.

        Key words: spondylogenic cervical myelopathy, JOA score, transverse area of the spinal cord