Brain and Spinal Cord Injury Center score

Last revised by Ali Alsmair on 16 Mar 2022

Citation, DOI, disclosures and article data

Citation:

Deng F, Alsmair A, Brain and Spinal Cord Injury Center score. Reference article, Radiopaedia.org (Accessed on 23 Mar 2023) https://doi.org/10.53347/rID-97498

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.53347/rID-97498

Permalink:

https://radiopaedia.org/articles/97498

rID:

97498

Article created:

16 Feb 2022, Francis Deng ◉

Disclosures:

At the time the article was created Francis Deng had no recorded disclosures.

View Francis Deng's current disclosures

Last revised:

16 Mar 2022, Ali Alsmair

Disclosures:

At the time the article was last revised Ali Alsmair had no recorded disclosures.

View Ali Alsmair's current disclosures

Revisions:

4 times, by 2 contributors - see full revision history and disclosures

Systems:

Spine, Central Nervous System

Sections:

Classifications

Tags:

cases

Synonyms:

BASIC score

The Brain and Spinal Injury Center (BASIC) score is a classification system for grading acute traumatic spinal cord injury based on the axial extent of intramedullary signal abnormality on T2 weighted MRI.

Classification

The BASIC score is an ordinal scale that is graded 0 to 4 ¹:

BASIC 0 (normal): no cord signal abnormality
BASIC 1 (grey matter only): T2 hyperintensity confined to grey matter
BASIC 2 (some white matter): intramedullary T2 hyperintensity extends beyond expected grey matter margins to involve spinal white matter, but does not involve the entire transverse extent of the spinal cord
BASIC 3 (all white matter in-plane): T2 hyperintensity involving the entire axial plane of the spinal cord
BASIC 4 (with hemorrhage): grade 3 injury with the addition of foci of T2 hypointensity consistent with hemorrhage

BASIC score 0-2 injuries with hemorrhage are elevated by one grade ¹.

Validity

The BASIC score correlates with neurological symptoms (ASIA Impairment Scale) as well as prognosis for short-term improvement ^1-3and ability to walk after a year ⁴.

The interrater agreement has been good or poor in different studies ^1,5.

The BASIC score is one component of the US National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS) common data elements instrument for spinal cord injury research ⁵.