Abstract #2454

Diffusion Tensor MR Imaging of the Healthy Human Cervical, Thoracic and Lumbar Spinal Cord

Rachael Lee Bosma¹, Christopher Alan Kidd¹, Patrick W. Stroman^1,2

¹Centre for Neuroscience Studies, Queen's University, Kingston, Ontario, Canada; ²Departments of Diagnostic Radiology and Physics, Queen's University, Kingston, Ontario, Canada

A greater understanding of diffusion indices within the healthy spinal cord is necessary for comparison with clinical populations. Here we measured fractional anisotropy and apparent diffusion coefficient values for cervical (C2-C7), thoracic (T3-T8) and lumbar (T10-L1) regions of the cord. FA vs. ADC values were plotted and three clusters were determined using a k-means partition to characterize each region of the spinal cord. DTI indices in the healthy cord were observed to be relatively consistent across regions, indicating that changes in these indices as a result of trauma at any level can be characterized relative to these observed indices.