Abstract #1400

Accurate Measurement of Cartilaginous Endplate of the Intervertebral Disc of in vivo MRI Data

Sung M. Moon¹,², Jon H. Yoder², Ed J. Vresilovic³, Dawn M. Elliott², Alexander C. Wright¹

¹Laboratory for Structural NMR Imaging, Department of Radiology, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, United States; ²Department of Orthopaedic Surgery, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, United States; ³3Department of Orthopaedics and Rehabilatation, Penn State University, Hershey, PA, United States

Intervertebral disc degeneration is considered one of the key causes of back pain while very little is known about the MR characteristics of the CEP (cartilaginous end-plate) because it is very thin (~600m) and difficult to image and recognize on routine MR exams. Visualizing CEP and/or measuring water content of the CEP are important for the evaluation of disc degeneration. However, measuring CEP thickness challenging in vivo due to voxel size. In this study, high-resolution ex vivo CEP images and low-res in vivo images were acquired and evaluated for different voxel sizes, and estimated error was reported using automated program.