Magnetic resonance diffusion imaging of the human cervical spinal cord in vivo.

Knowledge of water diffusion characteristics within the human spinal cord may provide important information about the structural nature of spinal cord pathology. However, the sensitivity of diffusion imaging methods to motion and the requirement for high in-plane resolution has hitherto restricted study of spinal cord diffusion to excised samples. The first diffusion images of the human cervical spinal cord in vivo are presented using a navigated pulsed-gradient spin-echo sequence. Anisotropic diffusion in the cord is demonstrated in agreement with in vitro studies, and further development of the technique for clinical studies is discussed.