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Congress: ECR25
Poster Number: C-24068
Type: Poster: EPOS Radiologist (scientific)
Authorblock: M. Dostál, M. Keřkovský, T. Rohan, J. Bednařík, M. Němec; Brno/CZ
Disclosures:
Marek Dostál: Nothing to disclose
Miloš Keřkovský: Nothing to disclose
Tomas Rohan: Nothing to disclose
Josef Bednařík: Nothing to disclose
Martin Němec: Nothing to disclose
Keywords: CNS, MR-Diffusion/Perfusion, Imaging sequences, Normal variants, Image verification
Results

Results

Of the 71 volunteer participants, 49 were included in the final analysis; 22 were excluded due to cervical spinal cord compression (Table 2).

Table 2: Descriptive characteristics of the group. BMI – Body mass index, Comp. – compresion. Statistical tests (Pearson's Chi-squared test or Wilcoxon rank sum test).
Of the 294 acquired vertebral levels, 46 were excluded due to poor image quality, resulting in 248 levels for the overall analysis (Table 3).
Table 3: Distribution of the cervical spine levels without artifacts.
Absolute IVIM parameter values for white matter (WM) and gray matter (GM), as well as their differences, are presented in Table 4 and Figures 1 and 2.
Table 4: Mean values of IVIM parameters in levels of cervial spine. Lvl- Vertebral level, GM – Gray matter, WM – White matter, Diff. – Difference, CI – Confidence interval, p-val – p-value (paired t-test), D – Diffusion, D* - Pseudo-diffusion, f – Perfusion fraction.
Fig 1: Values of intravoxel incoherent motion (IVIM) parameters in white matter (WM) and gray matter (GM) at different vertebral levels are shown. P-values above boxes indicate the results of paired t-tests. Each box displays the median (bold line), first and third quartiles (interquartile range, IQR), and the full range of data excluding outliers, which are plotted as individual points.
Fig 2: Differences of intravoxel incoherent motion (IVIM) parameters between white (WM) and gray (GM) matter the same subject across vertebral leves are shown.
Figure 3 illustrates the IVIM parameters and segmentation masks for one representative participant at each vertebral level.
Fig 3: Example of intravoxel incorent motion (IVIM) parameters in axial planes for levels C2-C7, coresponding segmentation mask of white and gray matte and T2 sagital image of healty volunteer. F – Perfusion fraction, D* - Pseudo-diffusion, D – Diffusion, WM – White matter, GM – Gray matter.

Statistically significant sex differences were observed for the diffusion coefficient (D) and perfusion-related diffusion (D*) in several vertebral levels. Men exhibited higher D values in gray matter at C3, C4, C5, and C6, with no significant differences in white matter. For D*, men showed higher values in gray matter at C4, C5, and C7, and in white matter at C4 and C7. No significant sex differences were found for the fractional volume (f). These results are summarized in Table 5.

Table 5: Statisticaly significant differences between men and female. n – Count of levels included in statistics, IVIM – Intravoxel incoherent motion, Tiss. – Tissue, Lvl – Vertebral level, Diff. – Difference, CI – Confident interval, p-val – p-values (Welsh two sampled t-test).

Multivariable linear regression revealed a statistically significant effect of age on D in white matter at C2 (β = -0.000002; p = 0.038). BMI demonstrated a statistically significant effect on D in gray matter at C5 (β = -0.000005; p = 0.022) and on D* in gray matter at C3 (β = -0.000304; p = 0.03), C4 (β = -0.000336; p = 0.02), and C7 (β = -0.000321; p = 0.031).
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