Community steps up to help Knowlton girl with rare spinal condition

Published: Saturday, July 24, 2010, 9:56 AM

Story Written By Jane Primerano

KNOWLTON TWP. — While most 11-year-old girls like to show off their spelling skills, Cathleen Balla has a talent for impressive words.

Unfortunately, that’s because they describe a serious disease that is impacting her life.

“That’s Cathleen with a C,” the bouncy blonde said before spelling the ailment: syringomyelia, or SM, a tubular cyst in the central spinal canal. Going along with SM is a Chiari malformation, a structural defect in the cerebellum, the part of the brain that controls balance.

From the Hospital General Universitario de Alicante, Spain, Neurosurgery blog.


Characterization of Cyclic CSF Flow in the Foramen Magnum and Upper Cervical Spinal Canal with MR Flow Imaging and Computational Fluid Dynamics

AJNR Am J Neuroradiol 31:997–1002.DOI 10.3174/ajnr.A1995

CSF flow has been shown to exhibit complex patterns in MR images in both healthy subjects and in patients with Chiari I. Abnormal CSF flow oscillations, according to prevailing opinion, cause syringomyelia and other clinical manifestations that affect some patients with the Chiari I malformation. 

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