Home > Encyclopedia of Neurological Disorders > Transverse Myelitis

Definition

Transverse myelitis is an inflammation of the full width of the spinal cord that disrupts communication to the muscles, resulting in pain, weakness, and muscle paralysis.

Description

The symptoms of transverse myelitis are due to damage and/or destruction of the myelin sheath, the fatty white covering of nerve fibers that serves both to insulate the nerve fibers and to speed nervous conduction along them. Areas of missing myelin and areas of scarring along the affected nerves result in slowed or disrupted nervous conduction and muscle dysfunction.

Transverse myelitis may have a gradual onset or a remarkably quick onset. Symptoms of transverse myelitis may reach their peak within 24 hours of onset for some patients (considered the hyperacute form of the condition). Other patients experience a more gradual increase in...