We are studying Head pathologies and I chose to talk about Chiari Malfomation. This pathology is when the cerebellum actually goes down through the foramen magnum and blocks it. This no longer allows the flow of Cerebrospinal Fluid (CSF). The blocking of the CSF flow then can cause a Syrinx or a cyst where the CSF has no where to go. The Syrinx can get worse and turn into a syringomyelia and can start to destroy the spinal cord. The symptoms that a person may have would be dizziness, limb weakness, balance, and movement problems. We have learnt that balance and movements are some of the things that the cerebellum controls, which makes since that these would be symptoms. The most common treatment is to have surgery. This involves going in and allowing the CSF to flow through like normal.
I found all of my information from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arnold-Chiari_malformation if you would like to read more about this pathology.
The MRI picture in the top left was found at www.pressenter.com/~wacma/mri.htm and the pictures side by side were found http://www.northshorelij.com/body.cfm?ID=6409.
