A Multicenter Registry-Based Study Across the Spectrum of Degenerative Cervical Myelopathy

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Conditions studied: Degenerative Cervical Myelopathy, Non-myelopathic Degenerative Cervical Cord Compression, Asymptomatic Degenerative Cervical Cord Compression, Cervical Spinal Cord Compression

In brief

This is a multicenter, prospective, longitudinal, observational registry-based study of degenerative cervical myelopathy (DCM) across the full disease spectrum, linked to a disease-specific biobank. The study will enroll adults with non-myelopathic degenerative cervical cord compression, including asymptomatic degenerative cervical cord compression with or without radiculopathy, as well as patients with mild, moderate, or severe DCM. The study does not assign treatment or interfere with real-world clinical decision-making. All participants will undergo standardized baseline assessment, scheduled follow-up, and event-driven supplemental data collection. Core data include demographic information, comorbidities, disease characteristics, neurological examination, objective functional tests, patient-reported outcomes, cervical MRI findings, treatment pathway, treatment changes, adverse events, and long-term clinical outcomes. In participating centers, standardized biospecimen collection will be performed to support nested biomarker, immune, imaging, electrophysiological, and traditional Chinese medicine syndrome substudies. The main objective is to establish a standardized multicenter registry platform covering non-myelopathic degenerative cervical cord compression and mild, moderate, and severe DCM; to describe clinical trajectories, imaging evolution, treatment pathways, and long-term outcomes; and to identify factors associated with disease deterioration and functional prognosis.

Key facts

Study ID

NCT07641699

Run by

Wangjing Hospital, China Academy of Chinese Medical Sciences

People needed

200

Starts

2026-06-01

Expected to finish

2031-12-31

Last updated by the study team

2026-06-11

Who can join

Age: 18 and older. Sex: any. Healthy volunteers: accepted.

You may qualify if…

• Age 18 years or older.
• Cervical MRI confirms cervical spinal cord compression caused by degenerative pathology, including but not limited to disc protrusion or bulging, osteophyte formation, ligamentum flavum hypertrophy or ossification, ossification of the posterior longitudinal ligament, degenerative cervical canal stenosis, or other degenerative compressive factors.
• At least one cervical level meets one or more of the following imaging criteria: partial or complete disappearance of the cerebrospinal fluid space around the spinal cord, direct contact between the spinal cord and degenerative compressive structures, focal spinal cord indentation, flattening or deformation, or other recognized imaging manifestations of degenerative cervical cord compression.
• Meets one of the following clinical phenotypes: non-myelopathic degenerative cervical cord compression, with or without clinical radiculopathy; or clinically and radiologically confirmed mild, moderate, or severe degenerative cervical myelopathy.
• Able to complete baseline core assessments and willing to participate in longitudinal follow-up.
• Provides written informed consent. Additional consent may be obtained for specific biospecimen types or nested substudies.

You may not qualify if…

• Cervical spinal cord compression or myelopathy mainly caused by non-degenerative etiologies, such as acute trauma, tumor, infection, inflammatory or demyelinating disease, vascular lesion, obvious congenital malformation, or other non-degenerative spinal cord disease.
• Presence of a dominant other neurological disease or severe psychiatric or cognitive disorder that, in the investigator's judgment, would clearly interfere with DCM-related neurological functional assessment or make reliable follow-up impossible.
• Objective inability to complete the core imaging assessment or core follow-up and judged by the investigator to be unsuitable for inclusion in the main registry cohort.
• Refusal to sign informed consent or explicit refusal of core data collection and follow-up.

Where it is running

• Wangjing Hospital, China Academy of Chinese Medical Sciences — Beijing, Beijing Municipality, China

Full record on ClinicalTrials.gov

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