Detection of multiple pathways in the spinal cord white matter using q-ball imaging

High angular resolution MRI such as q-ball imaging (QBI) allows to recover complex white matter architecture. We applied this technique to an ex vivo spinal cord of one cat using a 3T scanner, 100 directions and b-values varying from 1000 to 3000 s/mm
²
. As a result, QBI can retrieve crossing fibre information, where the diffusion tensor imaging approach is constrained to a single diffusion direction. To our knowledge, this is the first study demonstrating the benefits of QBI in observing longitudinal, commissural and dorso-ventral fibres in the spinal cord. It is a first step towards in vivo characterization of the healthy and injured spinal cord using high angular resolution diffusion imaging (HARDI) and QBI.