Spinal cord motion assessed by phase-contrast MRI - An inter-center pooled data analysis

Area of Science:

• Neuroimaging
• Biomedical Engineering
• Clinical Neurology

Background:

• Phase-contrast MRI (PC-MRI) assesses cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) and spinal cord dynamics in conditions like degenerative cervical myelopathy (DCM).
• Craniocaudal spinal cord motion analysis offers rapid, reliable assessments driven by intracranial and intraspinal volume shifts.
• Inter-center variability in PC-MRI data challenges the diagnostic validity of spinal cord motion analysis.

Purpose of the Study:

• To systematically investigate inter-center differences in phase-contrast MRI data of spinal cord motion.
• To compare different MRI sequences and processing techniques for spinal cord motion analysis.

Main Methods:

• Retrospective, pooled-data analysis of cardiac-gated, sagittal PC-MRI of the cervical spinal cord (C2/C3 to C7/T1) across two centers.
• Inclusion of healthy participants and patients with degenerative cervical myelopathy (DCM).
• Comparison of manual versus fully automated image processing techniques.

Main Results:

• A distinct craniocaudal spinal cord motion pattern and increased focal motion in DCM patients were identified.
• Higher MRI time-resolution led to steeper motion peaks and significant inter-center differences.
• Automated processing demonstrated high reliability (ICC > 0.86) but no superiority over manual methods.

Conclusions:

• Craniocaudal spinal cord motion is a genuine finding with diagnostic potential.
• Inter-center data discrepancies are primarily attributed to variations in MRI sequence time-resolution.
• Automated processing ensures consistent and unbiased spinal cord motion analysis.