Novel Imaging Approach to Improve Treatment for Spinal Cord Injuries

Vascular dysfunction in the spinal cord contributes to multiple neurological conditions, including traumatic injuries and degenerative cervical myelopathy, where reduced blood flow can lead to progressive weakness and sensory loss. Yet measuring these changes accurately has remained a challenge, limiting clinical decision-making for preventive care and treatment. Current tools do not reliably capture how spinal cord vessels respond to changing physiological demands. A new imaging method now addresses this diagnostic gap.

Researchers at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine (Chicago, IL, USA) have adapted established fMRI techniques commonly used in brain research and refined them for the spinal cord, implementing technical adjustments to accommodate its small size and motion sensitivity. The goal was to measure vascular reactivity, or the ability of spinal cord blood vessels to dilate in response to physiological stimuli.

To generate these measurements, participants underwent repeated fMRI scans while briefly holding their breath to elevate carbon dioxide levels and trigger blood vessel dilation. The resulting signal changes enabled the team to map the timing and magnitude of blood-flow responses across spinal cord regions. This adaptation leverages fMRI’s sensitivity to vascular dynamics rather than neural activity, offering a direct look at the spinal cord’s circulatory health.

The study, published in Scientific Reports, validated the approach through controlled breath-hold tasks during imaging sessions. Maps generated from the scans revealed distinct patterns of vascular reactivity across spinal cord segments, with certain regions responding at different times. These timing differences were consistent across participants and may reflect circulation pathways of spinal arteries that have not been previously charted.

Participants showed reliable and repeatable vascular responses, supporting the method’s robustness for clinical or research use. The findings also suggest that the technique can detect subtle impairments in vascular dilation that may precede structural or symptomatic decline. Overall, the data confirm that fMRI can be adapted to measure spinal cord blood-flow dynamics with far greater precision than prior approaches.

This imaging strategy could guide treatment decisions for spinal cord injury by revealing whether therapeutic interventions improve vascular or neural function. It may also play a role in early detection for patients with degenerative cervical myelopathy by identifying impaired vascular supply near areas of compression. Such insights could support earlier intervention or closer monitoring in at-risk patients.

In addition to clinical use, the method creates new opportunities for mapping spinal circulation in healthy and diseased states, potentially informing surgical planning or rehabilitation strategies. Continued work may expand the technique to broader patient populations, integrate it with neural activity mapping, or apply it to longitudinal disease tracking. Further refinement will help determine its utility as a routine tool in spinal cord research and care.

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Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine

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