In vivo magnetic resonance imaging of the human cervical spinal cord at 3 Tesla

Abstract

Purpose:To demonstrate the feasibility of obtaining highquality magnetic resonance (MR) images of the human cervical spinal cord in vivo at a magnetic field strength of 3 T and to optimize the signal contrast between gray matter, white matter, and cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) on 2D gradient recalled echo (GRE) images of the cervical spinal cord. Materials and Methods:Using a custom-built, anatomically molded radio frequency (RF) surface coil, the repetition time and flip angle of a 2D GRE sequence were systematically varied in five volunteers to assess tissue contrast in the cervical spinal cord.Results: The 2D GRE parameters for an optimal balance between gray-white matter and CSF-white matter contrast at 3 T were determined to be a time-to-repetition (TR) of 2000 msec and a flip angle of 45°, with the constant short time-to-echo (TE) of 12 msec used in this study. Excellent tissue contrast and visualization of the internal anatomy of the spinal cord was demonstrated reproducibly in eight subjects using these optimal parameters. Conclusion:This study demonstrates that imaging the cervical spinal cord and delineating internal spinal cord structures such as gray and white matter is feasible at 3 T.

Measurement of T1 and T2 in the cervical spinal cord at 3 tesla

“…The same difficulties that have deterred measurement of relaxation behavior have also slowed the development of spinal cord imaging in general (5,6). Recently, a number of techniques for highresolution imaging have been applied to the spinal cord (7)(8)(9), yielding important clinical information about several pathologies (10,11), most notably multiple sclerosis (MS). Further development (and thereby, widespread adoption) of these methodologies may be facilitated by quantitative measures of the relaxation times, as they allow optimization of imaging parameters, potentially yielding improvements in sensitivity and contrast.…”

Comparison between 2D and 3D MEDIC for human cervical spinal cord MRI at 3T

“…The characterisation of 2D/3D MEDIC sequences is important for selecting the correct protocol for measuring the internal cord structures enabling accurate diagnosis, prognosis and monitoring of therapy 19 . The ability to detect abnormal changes in the spinal cord anatomical structures are pivotal in determining topographic involvement in neurological diseases, to gain insights of pathophysiology and to understand the location and the extent of the disruption in specific cord areas due to injury or disorders in relation to clinical presentations.…”

Fast and Accurate Semi-Automated Segmentation Method of Spinal Cord MR Images at 3T Applied to the Construction of a Cervical Spinal Cord Template

“…Future studies could also integrate two anatomical imaging acquisitions for accurate nerve root localization [ 66 ] and for white and grey matter delineation using high-resolution T 2 *-weighted 2D gradient recalled echo sequence, a multi-echo gradient-echo sequence (MGE) or a gradient echo with a multi-shot echo-planar imaging sequence (GE-MS EPI) [ 67 , 57 ]. For instance, MGE sequence has already enabled construction of a probabilistic cervical and thoracic spinal cord atlas of 15 subjects [ 57 ].…”