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Abstract #0913

Quantitative measurement of myelin in distinct pathways of the spinal cord: Implications for assessing neuropathic pain after spinal cord injury

Hanwen Liu1,2, Emil Ljungberg3, Erin MacMillan3, Laura Barlow4, Shannon Kolind3, John Kramer2,5, and Cornelia Laule2,6,7

1Physics, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC, Canada, 2International Collaboration on Repair Discoveries, Vancouver, BC, Canada, 3Medicine, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC, Canada, 4UBC Hospital, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC, Canada, 5Kinesiology, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC, Canada, 6Radiology, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC, Canada, 7Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, University of British Columbia, BC, Canada

Neuropathic pain is common in people with spinal cord injury (SCI). To better understand the type and severity of damage in the spinal cord associated with neuropathic pain, we used myelin water imaging (MWI) combined with spinal cord toolbox to study myelin content in specific pathways of spinal cord for both healthy and SCI subjects. Results show that MWI can distinguish different pathways of spinal cord and reduced myelin content in some specific pathways is found in SCI subjects. Our findings suggest that MWI with pathway-based analysis is capable of examining the correlation between damage pattern and neuropathic pain.

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