The characteristics of fMRI for lumbar spinal cord by electrically stimulating anterolateral legskin in healthy adults

doi:10.3877/cma.j.issn.2095-655X.2014.04.003

Abstract

Abstract:

Objective

To detect the characteristics of fMRI for lumbar spinal cord by stimulating anterolateral legs based on a fast spin echo sequence, and compare the differences of the activation signal between transverse and sagittal plane to determine the feasibility and repeatability of the functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) for lumbar spinal cord.

Methods

GE1.5T Signa MR syetem was employed to transmit and receive RF pulse by using an eight-channel CTL coil.Twelve volunteers were stimulated by an electrical stimulator (intermittent pulse, frequency 20 HZ) on the anterolateral leg skin to detect fMRI activation signal.Spinal fMRI was acquired by a single-shot fast spin echo (SSFSE) sequence based on signal enhancement by the extra vascular water proton (SEEP) effect.Scanning parameters were as follows (sag/axial): TR=6 000 ms, TE=6.8/6.6 ms, thickness=4/7 mm, space=0.5 mm, FOV=24 cm×24 cm, parent=256×256, NEX=1, and ETL=64.Block design was used as the activation pattern, such as R₁-S₁-R₂-S₂-R₃-S₃-R₄.The imaging data were analyzed with SPM8 and Marsbar.

Results

Activation signal of the lumbar spinal cord was found in all volunteers except for the data of two volunteers were taking off for their movements out of range.Time-intensity changes curves were correlated with periods of rest and active in both axial and sagittal views through the spinal cord.In the sagittal view, the activation was mainly located at the T₁₂(10/10), and the signal intensity percentage varied from 0.0% to 2.0%.Few signal was also found at T₁₁(2/10) and L₁(3/10). In the axial view, the activation signal mainly focus on the ipsilateral dorsal horn (7/10), and few signal was also found at the contra-lateral dorsal horn (5/10) and bilateral ventral horn (3/10). At T₁₂ vertebral level, there was no statistically significant difference in the average activation signal pixels and signal intensity changes between sagittl and transverse plane(Z=-1.825, Z=-1.376; P>0.05).

Conclusions

There are feasibilites of fMRI of lumbar spinal cord based on SEEP effect using 1.5T MR scanner, and the characterized activation signal was focused on the T₁₂ with a high repeatability.Moreover, activation signal of axial lumber is consistent with that of sagittal lumber.

Key words: Spinal Cord, Magnetic Resonance Imaging, Electric Stimulation

Yanlong Jia, Zhiwei Shen, Tingting Nie, Tao Zhang, Kuan Gen, Renhua Wu. The characteristics of fMRI for lumbar spinal cord by electrically stimulating anterolateral legskin in healthy adults[J]. Chinese Journal of Diagnostics(Electronic Edition), 2014, 02(04): 252-257.

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References 25

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脊柱节段	例数	平均激活像素数(个)	平均信号强度(%)
T₁₁	2	0.90±1.66	－0.15±0.53
T₁₂	10	5.70±4.74	0.81±1.55
L₁	3	1.70±3.33	0.53±0.99
χ²值		8.706	2.529
P值		0.013	0.282

脊柱节段	例数	平均激活像素数(个)	平均信号强度(%)
T₁₁	2	0.90±1.66	－0.15±0.53
T₁₂	10	5.70±4.74	0.81±1.55
L₁	3	1.70±3.33	0.53±0.99
χ²值		8.706	2.529
P值		0.013	0.282

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