Purpose

Cervical spondylotic myelopathy (CSM) is a relatively common diagnosis that can present without neurological symptoms or, conversely, without changes in radiological imaging. Therefore, new methods are being sought to visualize degenerative changes in the cervical spine [1]. One promising approach is to monitor changes in blood perfusion using MRI. This can be done by applying a gadolinium contrast agent using the dynamic susceptibility contrast (DSC) method [2], [3], which is not ideal due to gadolinium contamination of the body. While this method has been applied in other regions, research on its application within the cervical spinal cord remains limited. Therefore, this study establishes normative data for healthy, middle-aged volunteers, stratified by sex, age, body mass index (BMI), and vertebral level.