• Iordanis E Evangelou, Raya Massoud, and Steven Jacobson.
• Neuroimmunology Branch, National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD.
• J Neuroimaging. 2014 Jan 1;24(1):74-8.

BackgroundHuman T-cell lymphotropic virus type I (HTLV-I)-associated myelopathy/tropical spastic paraparesis (HAM/TSP) is a disabling neurological disorder characterized by inflammatory changes in the spinal cord. We used a semiautomatic technique to quantify spinal cord volume from 3-dimensional MR images of patients with HAM/TSP.MethodsFive patients and 5 matched healthy volunteers (HVs) underwent MRI of the cervical and thoracic spinal cord at 1.5 T. Quantification of the spinal cord volume was obtained from 3-dimensional MR images using a semiautomatic technique based on level sets. An unpaired t-test was used to assess statistical significance.ResultsSignificant differences were found between mean spinal cord volume of HVs and HAM/TSP patients. The thoracic spinal cord volume was 14,050 ± 981 mm(3) for HVs and 8,774 ± 2,218 mm(3) for HAM/TSP patients (P = .0079), a reduction of 38%. The cervical spinal cord volume was 9,721 ± 797 mm(3) for HVs and 6,589 ± 897 mm(3) for HAM/TSP patients (P = .0079), a reduction of 32%. These results suggest that atrophy is evident throughout the spinal cord not routinely quantified.ConclusionsSemiautomatic spinal cord volume quantification is a sensitive technique for quantifying the extent of spinal cord involvement in HAM/TSP.Copyright © 2012 by the American Society of Neuroimaging.

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