Fig. 1

Numbers of study participants, groups and innervation of immune relevant organs. Recruited patients were allocated to 3 different cohorts: i) patients with a SCI lesion at level Th5 and above (black); ii) patients with a SCI lesion at level Th6 and below (grey); iii) neurologically silent patients with a vertebral fracture at any level. SCI-lesions at Th5 and above (i), depending on the completeness of the lesion (AIS A-D), result in a partial or total denervation of the sympathetic pregranglionic neurons synapsing on the celiac ganglion and subsequent ganglia connected to the segments below the lesion. In patients with lesions at Th6 and below (ii), the innervation of the celiac ganglion remains completely/partially intact. In the third group the sympathetic innervation of neuroendocrine or primary and secondary immune organs remains intact (iii)