Tractography and Diffusion Tensor Imaging of the Human Spinal Cord in Healthy Subjects : Anatomical Atlas

Tractography and Diffusion Tensor Imaging of the Human Spinal Cord in Healthy Subjects : Anatomical Atlas

Today, Spinal cord pathologies, whether are tumoral, vascular, traumatic, malformative, inflammatory, or degenerative still constitute a major medico-surgical challenge due to the particular anatomy of the spinal cord. Indeed, the spinal fibers (whether they have a sensory or motor function) are all condensed in an extremely small volume. To date, there is no reliable technique to know the precise position of the spinal tracts specifically involved in the sensory and motor functions of the upper and lower limbs.

The purpose of this study is to evaluate the feasibility for differentiating spinal tracts by tractography from a cerebral Diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) sequence (associated with an anatomical sequence) by performing a stitching process with spinal cord DTI MRI sequence, in healthy subjects. The criterion of differentiation of the tracts will be assessed by highlighting already known cerebral tracts (cortico-spinal fibers, spinothalamic, posterior cord) and which will be monitored at the spinal level.

Inclusion Criteria:

• patient> 18 years old
• Healthy volunteer
• Social insured in France
• Patient who signed the informed consent of the study

Exclusion Criteria:

• Medical or surgical history of disease that may affect the central nervous system, or the spine
• History of spine or spinal cord trauma.
• Spinal osteoarthritis which can lead to a medullary hyper signal.
• Contraindication to MRI: claustrophobia, pace-maker, defibrillator, metallic foreign bodies, etc.
• Subjects benefiting from legal protection (curatorship, guardianship or safeguard of justice).
• Pregnant and / or breastfeeding woman.