Publications by authors named "Loan Mattera"
The emergence of 7T clinical MRI technology has sparked our interest in its ability to discern the complex structures of the hand. Our primary objective was to assess the sensory and motor nerve structures of the hand, specifically nerves and Pacinian corpuscles, with the dual purpose of aiding diagnostic endeavors and supporting reconstructive surgical procedures. Ethical approval was obtained to carry out 7T MRI scans on a cohort of volunteers.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFArticle Synopsis
- Clinical research typically requires careful study designs that account for variables like sex and age, but often overlooks body size factors like height and weight in neuroimaging studies.
- This study analyzed data from 267 healthy adults to explore how body height and weight relate to various brain and spinal cord MRI metrics, finding significant correlations, especially with brain gray matter volume and cervical spinal cord area.
- The results suggest that body size is an important biological variable that should be included in clinical neuroimaging study designs to enhance accuracy in understanding brain and spinal cord structures.
Epidural electrical stimulation (EES) targeting the dorsal roots of lumbosacral segments restores walking in people with spinal cord injury (SCI). However, EES is delivered with multielectrode paddle leads that were originally designed to target the dorsal column of the spinal cord. Here, we hypothesized that an arrangement of electrodes targeting the ensemble of dorsal roots involved in leg and trunk movements would result in superior efficacy, restoring more diverse motor activities after the most severe SCI.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFFunctional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) has revolutionized the investigation of brain function. Similar approaches can be translated to probe spinal mechanisms. However, imaging the spinal cord remains challenging, notably due to its size and location.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFArticle Synopsis
- A new standardized quantitative MRI protocol for spinal cord imaging, called the spine generic protocol, has been developed to be used with 3T MRI systems from major manufacturers like GE, Philips, and Siemens.
- The protocol includes specific imaging techniques for evaluating spinal cord macrostructure and microstructure, such as T1 and T2-weighted imaging to determine cross-sectional areas and diffusion-weighted imaging for white matter assessment.
- An open-access document detailing the protocol is available online, providing a useful resource for researchers and clinicians aiming to enhance spinal cord imaging in neuroimaging practices.
Article Synopsis
- - The paper by Cohen-Adad et al. introduces a standardized MRI protocol for evaluating spinal cord integrity, tested across 19 and 42 centers for single and multi-subject datasets respectively, involving a total of 260 participants.
- - The datasets are openly available online, allowing researchers to access valuable data for analysis using tools like the Spinal Cord Toolbox, which produces normative values and statistics on variability across sites and manufacturers.
- - The protocol demonstrated high reproducibility with less than 5% variation across different sites and manufacturers, aiming to enhance the accessibility and reliability of quantitative MRI assessments in spinal research.
The spinal cord is the main interface between the brain and the periphery. It notably plays a central role in motor control, as spinal motoneurons activate skeletal muscles involved in voluntary movements. Yet, the spinal mechanisms underlying human movement generation have not been completely elucidated.
View Article and Find Full Text PDF