Reliability of spinal cord measures based on Synthetic T1-weighted MRI derived from multi-parametric mapping (MPM)

MRI acquisition time is a main factor for patient's comfort and motion artifacts. To avoid additional time consuming T1-w MPRAGE imaging for measuring spinal cord atrophy, when quantitative multi-parameter maps (MPM) are available, we reconstructed and validated a synthetic T1-w (synT1-w) based on MPMs. Test-retest repeatability was assessed and synT1-w images were compared with T1-w MPRAGE in a longitudinal study following spinal cord injury. Measures derived from synT1-w demonstrated high intra- and inter-site repeatability with only small difference when compared to MPRAGE. The estimated effects of spinal cord atrophy agreed with those obtained from MPRAGE.