Comparison of Three-Dimensional Micro-CT Angiography of Cervical Spinal Cord between Two Contrast Agents

Figure 2

Vasculars of the cervical spinal cord at low-resolution micro-CT scanning. The spinal cord contour is defined around the outer edge of the spinal cord (a, d). The resulting mask was applied in combination with a grayscale threshold and a three-dimensional Gaussian noise filter to segment the perfused vasculature from the total volume (b, e). The vascular diameter was calculated using a distance transform method (c, f). The bar graphs showing VV/TV, V.Dm, V.N, SMI, Conn.D, V.Sp, percentage, and volume of vessels (g–n). There was no difference in VV/TV, V.Dm, V.N, Conn.D, V.Sp, percentage, or volume of vessels with different diameters between the two groups, except significant difference in SMI.