An improved method for spinal functional MRI with large volume coverage of the spinal cord
✍ Scribed by Patrick W. Stroman; Jennifer Kornelsen; Jane Lawrence
- Publisher
- John Wiley and Sons
- Year
- 2005
- Tongue
- English
- Weight
- 529 KB
- Volume
- 21
- Category
- Article
- ISSN
- 1053-1807
No coin nor oath required. For personal study only.
✦ Synopsis
Abstract
Purpose
To develop a spinal functional MRI (fMRI) method with three‐dimensional coverage of a large extent of the spinal cord with minimal partial volume effects
Materials and Methods
fMRI data of the cervical spinal cord were obtained at 1.5 T with a single‐shot fast spin‐echo imaging method, from thin contiguous sagittal slices spanning the cord. Thermal stimulation was applied to the palm of the hand in a block pattern with 15°C for stimulation and 32°C during baseline periods. Prior to analysis, the image data at each time point were reformatted into three‐dimensional volumes and resliced perfectly transverse to the spinal cord. Smoothing was applied only in the superior‐inferior (S/I) direction across uniform tissue types. Active voxels were then identified by means of a correlation to a model paradigm.
Results
The resulting activity maps demonstrate activity primarily in ipsilateral sensory areas and in some motor areas, consistent with the spinal cord neuroanatomy. These data also demonstrate detail of the subsegmental organization of the spinal cord, as well as anatomical detail of the spinous processes and positions of nerve roots.
Conclusion
The spinal fMRI method described enables large volume coverage of the spinal cord in three dimensions, with reliable and reproducible results. J. Magn. Reson. Imaging 2005;21:520–526. © 2005 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.