• Masatoshi Teraguchi, Hiroshi Yamada, Munehito Yoshida, Yoshiaki Nakayama, Tomoyoshi Kondo, Hidefumi Ito, Masaki Terada, and Yoshiki Kaneoke.
• Department of Orthopedics, Graduate School of Wakayama Medical University, Wakayama, Japan.
• J Magn Reson Imaging. 2014 Nov 1; 40 (5): 1199-207.

PurposeWe aimed to assess if the T1-weighted (T1w)/T2-weighted (T2w) signal ratio could be used to improve image contrast in MR spinal cord imaging.Materials And MethodsT1w and T2w cervical spinal cord MR images were acquired from 23 normal subjects using 3 Tesla (T) MR scanner. In addition, a multiple sclerosis patient, and a cervical spondylotic myelopathy patient were evaluated. White matter (WM) and gray matter (GM) signal intensities were measured for each image (T1w, T2w, and T1w/T2w) for seven cervical segments in each subject to calculate the contrast. Age-related changes in signal intensity were assessed at each location (lateral column, anterior column, dorsal column, and GM) for each image. Additionally, the imaging results of two subjects with spinal diseases and the controls were numerically compared.ResultsThe contrast between the WM and GM in the T1w/T2w ratio image was approximately twice as much as that in the T1w and T2w images (mean ± SD = 1.8 ± 0.4). The signal intensity ratio was related to age. For both clinical patients, the signal intensities were significantly lower in the lesion areas in the ratio images.ConclusionThe T1w/T2w ratio images demonstrated increased image contrast compared with T1w and T2w images alone and, reduced inter-individual signal intensity differences.© 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

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