Transverse Localization Diagnosis of Compressive Myelopathy

	Intramedullary Lesion	Extramedullary Intradural Lesion	Epidural Lesion
Early Symptoms	Mostly bilateral	Unilateral progressing to bilateral	Mostly starts unilaterally
Radicular Pain	Rare	Severe early, localized	May occur early
Sensory Disturbance	Dissociated	Tract-like, starts unilaterally	Mostly bilateral tract-like
Pain and Temperature Sensation Disturbance	Progresses from top to bottom	Progresses from bottom to top	Bilateral, progresses from bottom to top
Segmental Muscle Weakness and Atrophy	Early and obvious	Rare and localized	Rare
Pyramidal Tract Signs	Not obvious	Early, starts unilaterally	Early, mostly bilateral
Sphincter Dysfunction	Early onset	Late onset	Late onset
Spinous Process Tenderness	None	Common	Common
Spinal Canal Obstruction	Late onset	Early onset	Early onset
CSF Protein Increase	Not obvious	Obvious	More obvious
Spinal X-ray Changes	None	Possible	Obvious
Complete Spinal Myelography Defect	Fusiform enlargement of the spinal cord	Cup-shaped	Serrated
MRI Findings	Fusiform enlargement	Extramedullary mass, spinal cord displacement	Epidural mass, spinal cord displacement