Patrick W. Stroman1,2, Randi L. Beazer1,
Christopher Kidd1, Rachael Bosma1, Karen Smith3,4,
Ronald Pokrupa5,6, Omar Islam, 2,7, Nomusa Mngoma4,
David Cadotte8,9, David Mikulis8,10, Michael G.
Fehlings8,9
1Centre for Neuroscience Studies,
Queen's University, Kingston, Ontario, Canada; 2Diagnostic
Radiology, Queen's University, Kingston, Ontario, Canada; 3Physical
Medicine and Rehabilitation, Queen's University, Kingston, Ontario, Canada; 4Providence
Care, St Mary's of the Lake, Kingston, Ontario, Canada; 5Neurosurgery,
Kingston General Hospital, Kingston, Ontario, Canada; 6Neurosurgery,
Queen's University, Kingston, Ontario, Canada; 7Radiology,
Kingston General Hospital, Kingston, Ontario, Canada; 8Neurosurgery,
University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, Canada; 9Surgery, Toronto
Western Hospital, Toronto, Ontario, Canada; 10Medical Imaging,
Toronto Western Hospital, Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Clinical
applications of functional MRI of the spinal cord, in order to assess the
effects of spinal cord trauma or disease, must provide sensitive and reliable
results, even in the presence of fixation devices to stabilize the spine, and
must meet practical time limitations while providing enough information to be
diagnostic. Here we demonstrate
detailed functional maps in response to stimulation on the right and left
sides of the body, at spinal cord segmental levels above and below the level
of injury, in spinal cord injured patients.
The method is almost fully automated, and takes under 7 minutes.