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NARRATOR: The Magnetic Resonance Images, or MRI series, you are about to view were used
to diagnose a cyst growing in the thoracic spine. Horizontal image slices were taken
in the area designated by these lines. Each line corresponds to an image in the series.
Looking at the first image in the progression, you can see the normal round shape of the
spinal cord, which is surrounded by fluid and encased inside the backbone.
As you move downward through the sequence of images, you begin to see something that
looks out of place within the area of the backbone. This abnormality is a cyst.
Progress a little further and the images clearly show that the cyst not only touches the spinal
cord, it pushes on it with enough pressure to make it no longer appear round.
This amount of pressure on the spinal cord caused the patient severe pain and produced
significantly reduced mobility. If permitted to grow further, this cyst could have led
to paralysis.
Continuing downward, the cyst is no longer visible and the spinal cord returns to normal.