Objective To assess the clinical value of MRI in evaluation of acute spinal cord in-jury. Methods A total of 50 patients with acute spinal cord injury were examined with magnetic reso-nance (MRI), X-ray and CT. Of all, 15 patients for spinal MR imaging were examined with axial and sngittal spin-echo and fast spin-echo imaging and 17 with coronal imaging. All imaging was performed on 1.5T superconducting system (GE/SIEMENS) with spine surface coil. Results Among 50 patients with acute spinal cord injury, spinal cord edema was detected by MRI in 16 patients, by CT in four but none by X-ray. Intraspinal cord hemorrhage was detected by MRI in 21 patients, by CT in 11 but none by X-ray. Compression and dislocation were detected by MRI in 34 patients, by CT in 15 but none by X-ray. Incomplete and complete transection of spinal cord was found by MRI in 10 patients, by CT in three but none by X-ray. Conclusion MRI is superior to CT scanning and X-ray in detection and evaluation of a-cute spinal cord injury and is the optimal method for examination and diagnosis of acute spinal cord injury.