Postmortem diffusion MRI of the entire human spinal cord at microscopic resolution

Area of Science:

• Neuroscience
• Medical Imaging
• Biomedical Engineering

Background:

• The human spinal cord is crucial for motor and sensory functions, but susceptible to neurological diseases.
• Histology and MRI are common imaging methods, each with limitations.
• Magnetic resonance microscopy (MRM) offers high resolution but has been limited to small spinal cord sections.

Purpose of the Study:

• To present the first magnetic resonance microscopy (MRM) dataset of the entire postmortem human spinal cord.
• To enable detailed analysis of spinal cord anatomy and pathology at microscopic resolution.
• To overcome previous limitations in imaging the full length of the human spinal cord.

Main Methods:

• Developed a 280-hour multi-segment acquisition protocol for whole-human-spinal-cord MRM.
• Achieved 50 µm isotropic resolution for anatomical data and 100 µm for diffusion data.
• Utilized automated image segment composition for data integration.

Main Results:

• Generated the first comprehensive MRM dataset of the entire postmortem human spinal cord.
• Demonstrated the utility of the data for spinal cord lesion detection.
• Enabled automated volumetric gray matter segmentation and quantitative morphometry.

Conclusions:

• The presented MRM dataset represents a significant advancement in spinal cord imaging.
• This dataset facilitates detailed quantitative analysis of spinal cord structure and pathology.
• The methodology enables new insights into spinal cord anatomy and disease.