Quantitative assessment of physiological cerebrospinal fluid flow in the cervical spinal canal with 3.0T phase-contrast cine MRI

Abstract

A total of 50 healthy volunteers aged between 18 and 54 years underwent phase-contrast cine MRI to assess cerebrospinal fluid flow characteristics in different regions of the vertebral canal. The results revealed that the cerebrospinal fluid peak flow velocity and peak flow rate in the systolic phase were significantly greater than those in the diastolic phase at the same level in the subarachnoid space of the cervical spinal canal. The ventral peak flow velocity and peak flow rate were significantly greater than the post-lateral peak flow velocity and flow rate, while there were no differences between left and right post-lateral subarachnoid peak velocity and flow rate. Moreover, there were no significant differences in peak flow velocity and peak flow rate between the systolic and diastolic phases, ventral, right post-lateral or left post-lateral peak flow velocity and peak flow rate at the same level in the subarachnoid space of the cervical spinal canal among different age groups (18-24, 25-34, 35-44, ≥ 45 years).

Keywords: cerebrospinal fluid; flow velocity; magnetic resonance imaging; neural regeneration; phase-contrast; subarachnoid space; vertebral canal.

Figure 1

Cerebrospinal fluid flow in the vertebral canal on phase-contrast cine MRI. (A) White areas represent cerebrospinal fluid flow from head to foot. (B) Black areas represent cerebrospinal fluid flow from foot to head.

Figure 2

Cervical phase-contrast cine-MRI sagittal plane images. The location line (brown yellow) was vertical to the vertebral canal cerebrospinal fluid flow at C_2-3 levels.

Figure 3

Cervical phase-contrast cine-MRI horizontal axial scanning of real-time velocity of cerebrospinal fluid in region of interest (ROI) and each phase. (A) Green lines included the ROIs. (B) Real-time flow velocity corresponding to each ROI (mm/s). Rank represents phase.

Figure 4

Flow waveform of cervical spinal canal cerebrospinal fluid in one cardiac cycle. Each cardiac cycle was divided into 30 phases. Green number 1 represents cerebrospinal fluid flow curves in green region of interest 1 in Figure 3.

Figure 5

Cervical phase-contrast cine-MRI horizontal axial scanning of real-time flow velocity of cerebrospinal fluid in each phase in ventral, right and left post-lateral subarachnoid space at C_2-3 levels. (A) 1: Ventral; 2: right post-lateral; 3: left post-lateral (B) Real-time flow velocity corresponding every region of interest (mm/s); rank represents phase.

Figure 6

Cervical phase-contrast cine-MRI horizontal axial scanning of oscillating waveform of cerebrospinal fluid in every phase in ventral, right and left post-lateral subarachnoid space at C_2-3 levels. The 1, 2, and 3 in the right figure represent flow velocity curves of cerebrospinal fluid corresponding to region of interests (ROIs) 1, 2 and 3 in the left figure. (A) 1: Ventral; 2: right post-lateral; 3: left post-lateral. (B) X-ray: 30 phases in one cardiac cycle; Y-axis: real-time flow velocity of cerebrospinal fluid.