Anatomy-Aware Spinal Cord Stimulation in Magnetotherapeutical Applications

The presented article details anatomy-aware spinal cord stimulation based on patient-specific spinal cord coordinates computed from computer tomography data. Digital image processing methods and algorithms are used to extract spatial points representing the spinal cord canal and are subsequently used to precisely guide the electromagnetic applicator (e.g. figure-of-eight coil) along the patient back so as to focus the electromagnetic energy within the spinal cord canal and minimize surrounding tissue exposure. A comparison between manually (e.g. physician, doctor) and computer guided applicator is presented based on numerical simulation results.