| MRI findings | Potential diagnosis |
| Blood within the spinal cord (bright and dark T1 and T2 signal) | Vascular malformation such as cavernous angioma or dural arteriovenous fistula |
| Flow voids within spinal cord | Dural arteriovenous fistula or arteriovenous malformation |
| Central T2 signal abnormality | Venous hypertension |
| Ring-enhancing lesion | Infection or tumor (but consider course of intravenous glucocorticoids to rule out inflammatory process before progressing to biopsy) |
| Acute loss of vertical intervertebral disc height and corresponding T2 signal abnormality | Consider fibrocartilaginous embolism |
| Fusiform lesion extending over >3 spinal cord segments | Consider neuromyelitis optica spectrum disorders (NMOSD) or disease-associated transverse myelitis |
| T2 bright lesion in white matter occupying less than 2 spinal cord segments in rostral-caudal extent and less than 50 percent of the cord diameter | Consider multiple sclerosis |
| T2 spinal cord lesion adjacent to disk herniation or spondylitic ridge, but lack of spinal cord compression | Consider dynamic spinal cord compression only during flexion or extension (flexion-extension x-ray to determine the presence of abnormal spinal column mobility; MRI in flexion or extended position instead of in neutral position) |
