Spinal cord atrophy in spinocerebellar ataxia type 3 and 6 : impact on clinical disability.

Objective: To quantify spinal cord atrophy and its impact on clinical disability in spinocerebellar ataxia (SCA) type 3 and 6.

Methods: Atrophy of the upper spinal cord was assessed by high resolution T1-weighted MRI of patients with SCA3 (n = 14) and SCA6 (n = 10). Furthermore, two groups of age- and sex-matched healthy control subjects (n = 24,) corresponding to the two SCA groups, were studied.

Sensitivity and reproducibility of a new fast 3D segmentation technique for clinical MR-based brain volumetry in multiple sclerosis.

Fast, reliable and easy-to-use methods to quantify brain atrophy are of increasing importance in clinical studies on neuro-degenerative diseases. Here, ILAB 4, a new volumetry software that uses a fast semi-automated 3D segmentation of thin-slice T1-weighted 3D MR images based on a modified watershed transform and an automatic histogram analysis was evaluated. It provides the cerebral volumes: whole brain, white matter, gray matter and intracranial cavity.