Figure 2.

Anatomical features of midline, bilateral cervical contusion. (a): Transverse, toluidine blue-stained section at the injury epicenter depicts the loss of gray matter and throughout the white matter, with concentrations of pathology in the medial ventral and dorsal white matter. The prevalence of gray matter loss at the injury epicenter involved interneurons of laminae III–VI with some loss of laminae II and VII–VIII interneurons and motor neurons. (b): White matter pathology, including scattered demyelination, oligodendrocyte remyelination (o), and partitioned Schwann cell remyelination (sc), was evident in dorsal white matter. Most white matter damage occurred proximal to the cavitation and decreased outward to the subpial margin in all divisions. Close inspection of vasculature within areas of white matter pathology (yellow box, b) indentified foamy macrophages (outlined) associated with capillaries, suggestive of ongoing pathology (c) (pvc, perivascular cuffing; fm, foamy macrophages). Scale bar: a, 1 mm; b, 40 μm; c, 4 μm.