cerebrospinal

adjective ce·re·bro·spi·nal \ sə-ˌrē-brō-ˈspī-nᵊl , ˌser-ə-brō- \

Definition of cerebrospinal

: of or relating to the brain and spinal cord or to these together with the cranial and spinal nerves that innervate voluntary muscles

Recent Examples of cerebrospinal from the Web

People with brain tumors often wake up early with a headache because cerebrospinal fluid pressure is the highest in the early morning, Dr. Kreigler says.

— korin miller, SELF, "6 Causes of Morning Headaches," 24 Aug. 2017
A shunt surgery to drain excess cerebrospinal fluid building up around his brain took six attempts, but the seventh succeeded.

— joel michael reynolds, Time, "Gene Editing Might Mean My Brother Would’ve Never Existed," 9 Aug. 2017
But other times, researchers can’t, such as a recent case study of seven survivors with neurological complications who all turned up negative for Ebola RNA in their cerebrospinal fluid.

— beth mole, Ars Technica, "“Post-Ebola syndrome” is something else to keep you up at night," 19 July 2017
Another option, said Metz, is a drain inserted through the skin that diverts the cerebrospinal fluid, decreasing the pressure inside the dura.

— tracy seipel, The Mercury News, "Is Warriors Coach Kerr’s ‘stay away from surgery’ advice the right call?," 24 Apr. 2017
And in a small human study, other scientists have found that deep breathing significantly increases the glymphatic transport of cerebrospinal fluid into the brain.

— the washington post, The Denver Post, "Major finding in human anatomy has implications for many brain diseases, including Alzheimer’s," 21 May 2017
The glymphatic vessels carry cerebrospinal fluid and immune cells into the brain and remove cellular trash from it.

— david kohn, Washington Post, "When scientists saw the mouse heads glowing, they knew the discovery was big," 21 May 2017
Spontaneous cerebrospinal fluid leaks occur when there’s a loss of bone in the shelf of bone between the brain and the ear and a hole develops in the membrane bag that surrounds the brain, called the dura.

— shari rudavsky, Indianapolis Star, "He would wake up with a wet pillow and ear. But he never would have guessed what that fluid was.," 15 May 2017
Spontaneous cerebrospinal fluid leaks occur when bone is lost in the shelf of bone between the brain and the ear, and a hole develops in the membrane bag that surrounds the brain, called the dura.

— shari rudavsky, USA TODAY, "His wet pillow signaled leak from brain that needed fixing," 15 May 2017

These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'cerebrospinal.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.