Synopsis: Hydromyelia and syringomyelia are essentially cystic abnormalities of the spinal cord (SC). The prevalence of these abnormalities in the clinically normal pediatric population is uncommon to rare. Out of 26 healthy typically developing (TD) pediatric subjects scanned in this study, 4 subjects had incidental findings of hydromyelia (n=3) and syringomyelia (n=1) lesions within the thoracic SC. These subjects were healthy and clinically normal. DTI parameters were calculated by using ROIs drawn on the whole cord along the entire SC. DTI parameters were significantly different in the cord above the subject with syringomyelia lesion compared to the TD subjects. However, no significant difference in DTI parameters was found in the cord above the subjects with hydromyelia lesions. This study demonstrates that DTI has the potential to be used as an imaging biomarker to evaluate the SC above and below the congenital lesions in asymptomatic subjects and one should use caution while including them into a normative data population.
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