Anatom3DAscending & descending tracts
Substantia alba medullae spinalis · Vzestupné a sestupné dráhy
Nervous system
Looks like
The pale outer layer of the spinal cord, made of long insulated nerve fibres running up and down in bundles.
What it does
Carries sensation up to the brain and movement commands down to the muscles.
Keeping it well
Injury, pressure from a slipped disc and multiple sclerosis damage it. Numbness or weakness in both legs that spreads over hours is an emergency.
Related conditions
- Amyloidosis (AL and ATTR)
- Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis
- B12 & folate deficiency
- Bone metastases and spinal cord compression
- Botulism
- Chiari malformation and syringomyelia
- Chickenpox (varicella)
- Chronic neuropathic pain
- Chronic pain syndrome
- Fibromyalgia
- Friedreich's ataxia
- Guillain-Barré syndrome
- Lyme disease
- Multiple sclerosis
- Myasthenia gravis
- Neck pain and cervical spondylosis
- Neurogenic bladder
- Neuromyelitis optica spectrum disorder
- Peripheral neuropathy
- Poliomyelitis
- Rabies
- Restless legs syndrome
- Shingles (herpes zoster)
- Spina bifida & neural tube defects
- Spinal cord injury
- Spinal muscular atrophy
- Tetanus
- Tick-borne encephalitis
- Vitamin B1, C and other deficiencies