Abstract #4234

Novel Assessment of the Effects of Spinal Cord Injury in Patients by Means of Spinal FMRI

Patrick W. Stroman^1,2, Randi L. Beazer¹, Christopher Kidd¹, Rachael Bosma¹, Karen Smith^3,4, Ronald Pokrupa^5,6, Omar Islam,^2,7, Nomusa Mngoma⁴, David Cadotte^8,9, David Mikulis^8,10, Michael G. Fehlings^8,9

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.