Development of clinically translatable MRI methodologies for the thoracic spinal cord

项目摘要 磁共振成像（MRI）是诊断人类脊髓病理学的关键， 一系列的疾病状况和创伤脊髓的胸部区域，相当于脊椎 水平T1-T12，经常涉及脊髓缺血，硬脑膜动静脉瘘， 血管母细胞瘤以及炎性疾病如多发性硬化症（MS）。显然需要 胸髓的高质量、非退化MRI，以支持临床诊断和治疗计划 设置，以及提供全面的评价脊髓的转化研究。 不幸的是，这种解剖结构的MRI方法的发展明显滞后于大脑和颈椎 脊髓胸脊髓的成像特别具有挑战性，因为除了尺寸小之外， 生理运动，以及灰色和白色物质之间的低脊髓内组织对比度，该区域直接 与肺和横膈膜相邻，相对于颈部， 腰部区域。呼吸伪影是由肺和横膈膜的物理运动以及 随时间变化的B 0场均匀性。胸脊髓常规临床MRI技术 这些伪影可能需要重新采集（延长扫描持续时间）， 取消研究，这可能会对临床管理产生负面影响。该项目的总体目标是 系统优化胸脊髓的解剖和弥散MRI序列， 临床上可转化的技术，以减轻这些技术障碍，特别注意运动， 呼吸伪影这一目标将在两个目标中得到解决：目标1）优化临床相关解剖结构 在3 T和Aim下的胸脊髓MRI序列2）优化 胸脊髓3 T。这些目标的完成将提供一个临床可行的协议，以改善 解剖和扩散MRI，解决了目前脊髓MRI覆盖的重要差距。 此外，本研究将产生初步的数据，并为未来的翻译研究奠定基础 将实施全面的脊髓成像，以提高我们对脊髓病变的理解， 在患者人群中。

PROJECT SUMMARY Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) is critical to diagnosing pathology of the human spinal cord for a wide array of diseases, conditions, and trauma. The thoracic region of the spinal cord, corresponding to vertebral levels T1-T12, is frequently involved in conditions such as cord ischemia, dural arteriovenous fistulas, and hemangioblastoma as well as inflammatory diseases such as multiple sclerosis (MS). There is a clear need for high quality, nondegraded MRI of the thoracic cord to support diagnosis and treatment planning in the clinical setting as well as to provide comprehensive evaluation of the spinal cord in translational research studies. Unfortunately, MRI methods development for this anatomy significantly lags that for the brain and cervical spinal cord. The thoracic spinal cord is especially challenging to image because, in addition to small size, physiological motion, and low intra-cord tissue contrast between gray and white matter, this region is directly adjacent to the lungs and diaphragm and suffers the most from respiration artifacts relative to the cervical and lumbar regions. Respiration artifacts are caused by the physical motion of the lungs and diaphragm as well as the temporally varying B0 field homogeneity. Conventional, clinical MRI techniques for the thoracic spinal cord are often degraded by these artifacts which can necessitate re-acquisition (lengthening scan duration) or canceling studies, which can negatively impact clinical management. The overarching goal of this project is to systematically optimize anatomical and diffusion MRI sequences for the thoracic spinal cord that employ clinically translatable techniques to mitigate these technical hurdles with specific attention to motion and respiration artifacts. This goal will be addressed in two aims: Aim 1) Optimize clinically relevant anatomical MRI sequences for the thoracic spinal cord at 3T and Aim 2) Optimize diffusion MRI sequences for the thoracic spinal cord at 3T. Completion of these aims will provide a clinically feasible protocol for improved anatomical and diffusion MRI that addresses an important gap in current spinal cord MRI coverage. Furthermore, this study will generate preliminary data and set the stage for future translational research studies that will implement comprehensive spinal cord imaging to improve our understanding of spinal cord pathologies in patient populations.