Abstract #0635

Radial Fractional Anisotropy Mean and Angular Fractional Anisotropy Mean: New Tools in the Diagnosis and Assessment of Spinal Cord

Arturo Crdenas-Blanco^1,2, Harrison Westwick^1,2, Kareem Andre Moran³, Eve Chung Tsai^2,4

¹Division of Neuroscience, Ottawa Health Research Institute, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada; ²University of Ottawa, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada; ³Medical School, University of Ottawa, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada; ⁴Neurosurgery, Ottawa Hospital, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada

During the last years, Diffusion Tensor Imaging (DTI) has become the preferred tool to analyze white matter properties in spinal cord by depicting qualitatively its response to the presence of pathological lesions. In this abstract a new approach to quantitatively assess spinal cord tissue is proposed. This approach is based in the measurement of Radial Fractional Anisotropy Mean (RFAM) and Angular Fractional Anisotropy Mean (AFAM) values which depict the changes in fractional anisotropy mean values as a function of the distance from the centre of the spinal cord and the angle respectively.