Tractography and Diffusion Tensor Imaging of the Human Spinal Cord in Healthy Subjects : Anatomical Atlas

NCT05079945 | Completed

• 2 other identifiers: 69HCL21_02652021-A02277-34
• Study Type: interventional
• Target: 49
• Locations: 1 country
• Sites: 1

Brief Summary

Today, Spinal cord pathologies, whether are tumoral, vascular, traumatic, malformative, inflammatory, or degenerative still constitute a major medico-surgical challenge due to the particular anatomy of the spinal cord. Indeed, the spinal fibers (whether they have a sensory or motor function) are all condensed in an extremely small volume. To date, there is no reliable technique to know the precise position of the spinal tracts specifically involved in the sensory and motor functions of the upper and lower limbs. The purpose of this study is to evaluate the feasibility for differentiating spinal tracts by tractography from a cerebral Diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) sequence (associated with an anatomical sequence) by performing a stitching process with spinal cord DTI MRI sequence, in healthy subjects. The criterion of differentiation of the tracts will be assessed by highlighting already known cerebral tracts (cortico-spinal fibers, spinothalamic, posterior cord) and which will be monitored at the spinal level.

Conditions

Healthy Volunteer

Keywords

Tractography, DTI, MRI, spinal cord

Outcome Measures

Primary Outcomes (1)

• Spinal tracts differentiation and identification

  Percentage of complete tracts identified among healthy volunteer

  date of Tractography procedure (DTI MRI)

Secondary Outcomes (1)

• Spinal cord Tracts Atlas

  12 months (end of recruitment and exams)

Study Arms (1)

Spinal cord Tractography

EXPERIMENTAL

Healthy volunteer having the tractography exam

Procedure: Spinal cord Tractography in order to differentiate spinal tracts.

Interventions

Spinal cord Tractography in order to differentiate spinal tracts. PROCEDURE

Spinal cord tractography using DTI MRI sequences of the brain and spinal cord, in order to differentiate tracts at the spinal cord level; and by performing a stitching process between Brain and Spinal cord DTI sequences.

Spinal cord Tractography

Eligibility Criteria

• Age: 18 Years - 85 Years
• Sex: all
• Healthy Volunteers: Yes
• Age Groups: Adult (18-64), Older Adult (65+)

You may qualify if:

• patient\> 18 years old
• Healthy volunteer
• Social insured in France
• Patient who signed the informed consent of the study

You may not qualify if:

• Medical or surgical history of disease that may affect the central nervous system, or the spine
• History of spine or spinal cord trauma.
• Spinal osteoarthritis which can lead to a medullary hyper signal.
• Contraindication to MRI: claustrophobia, pace-maker, defibrillator, metallic foreign bodies, etc.
• Subjects benefiting from legal protection (curatorship, guardianship or safeguard of justice).
• Pregnant and / or breastfeeding woman.

Sponsors & Collaborators

• Hospices Civils de Lyon: lead

Study Sites (1)

Dauleac Corentin

Bron, 69500, France

Location

Related Publications (1)

• Dauleac C, Mertens P, Frindel C, Jacquesson T, Cotton F. Atlas-guided brain projection tracts: From regions of interest to tractography 3D rendering. J Anat. 2025 May;246(5):732-744. doi: 10.1111/joa.14120. Epub 2024 Aug 11.

  PMID: 39129322 BACKGROUND

Study Officials

• DAULEAC Corentin, Dr

  Hospices Civils de Lyon

  PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR

Study Design

• Study Type: interventional
• Phase: not applicable
• Allocation: NA
• Masking: NONE
• Purpose: BASIC SCIENCE
• Intervention Model: SINGLE GROUP
• Sponsor Type: OTHER
• Responsible Party: SPONSOR

Study Record Dates

• First Submitted: September 21, 2021
• First Posted: October 15, 2021
• Study Start: February 5, 2022
• Primary Completion: April 30, 2022
• Study Completion: April 30, 2022
• Last Updated: September 3, 2025

Record last verified: 2025-08

Data Sharing

• IPD Sharing: Will not share

Locations

FR (1)