Tethered cord syndrome(TCS) is defined as low placement of the spinal cord and thickened film terminale with associated anomalies. To assess the diagnostic value of magnetic resonance (MR) imaging and to describe the MR findings of TCS, MR imagings of 30 children with clinically and radiologically diagnosed TCS were retrospectively analyzed. The MR imaging was performed with a 2.0-T superconducting scanner with T1- and T-2weighted spin-echo techniques in sagittal and axial planes. In 21 patients (70.0%), the level of the tip of conus medullaris was between L5 and S2. The causes of cord techering were lipoma or lipomeningomyelocele976.6%), meningomyelocele 916.7%) and possible thickened filum terminale (3.3%). Associated anomalies included cord syrinx (11 cases), dural ectasia (7 cases), Chiari malformations (5 cases) and so forth. Post-operative results including ascent of conus medullaris level, absence or presence of residual lipoma, etc., could be well delineated in post-op rative follow-up studies examined in 10 patients. Spinal MR proved to be a reliable, noninvasive procedure in the initial evaluation and post-operative follow-up studies of the TCS.