Paola Valsasina1, Maria Assunta Rocca1,
Stefania Sala1, Mark Andrew Horsfield2, Patrick Stroman3,
Martina Absinta1, Giancarlo Comi4, Massimo Filippi1
1Neuroimaging Research
Unit, Institute of Experimental Neurology, Division of Neuroscience, San
Raffaele Hospital, Milan, Italy; 2Department of Cardiovascular
Sciences, University of Leicester, Leicester, United Kingdom; 3Centre
for Neuroscience Studies, Queen's University, Kingston, Ontario, Canada; 4Department
of Neurology, San Raffaele Hospital, Milan, Italy
Aim of this study was to apply a recently developed semi-automated method for cord normalization to high-resolution 3D T1-weighted images, in order to perform coregistration of cervical cord images in a common standard space and voxel-based analysis of cord atrophy. Images were acquired from 41 healthy controls and 31 patients with relapsing-remitting multiple sclerosis (MS). For each subject, normalization process was successfully run and cord masks were created with a semi-automatic approach based on active surface. Statistical analysis of these masks allowed the creation of cervical cord probability maps and voxel-wise comparison of cord volume between controls and MS patients.