SynSpine: an automated workflow for the generation of longitudinal spinal cord synthetic MRI data.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Spinal cord atrophy is a key biomarker for tracking disease progression in neurological disorders, including multiple sclerosis, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, and spinal cord injury. Recent MRI advancements have improved atrophy detection, particularly in the cervical region, facilitating longitudinal studies. However, validating atrophy quantification algorithms remains challenging due to limited ground truth data.

Objective

This study introduces SynSpine, a workflow for generating synthetic spinal cord MRI data (i.e., digital phantoms) with controlled levels of artificial atrophy. These phantoms support the development and preliminary validation of spinal cord imaging pipelines designed to measure degeneration over time.

Methods

The workflow consists of

SUBMITTER: Ganzetti M 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC12753887 | biostudies-literature | 2025

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature