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Abstract #4028

Diffusional Kurtosis Imaging (DKI) in the Normal Cervical Spinal Cord at 3 T : Baseline Values and Diffusion Metric Correlations

Eric Edward Sigmund1, Maxim Bester1,2, Ali Tabesh1, Matilde Inglese1, Joseph A. Helpern1

1Radiology, New York University Langone Medical Center, New York, NY, United States; 2Neuroradiology, University Hamburg-Eppendorf, Hamburg, Germany


The microstructural sensitivity of diffusion-weighted imaging is a powerful diagnostic in degenerative spinal cord (SC) disorders, and its specificity to different pathologies can be amplified with advanced protocols that exceed the Gaussian diffusion approximation. To that end, this study presents diffusional kurtosis imaging in the cervical spinal cord of healthy control subjects at 3 T. A set of diffusion tensor (MD, FA, Daxial,Dradial) and kurtosis tensor (MK, Kaxial,Kradial) metrics are derived. Diffusion and kurtosis metrics are observed to inversely correlate (e.g. low radial diffusion with high radial kurtosis), which is discussed in the context of SC microstructure.