Figure 1.

Raw anatomical MRI data, white and gray matter segmentation, and vertebral level labeling in a single-subject (a–e). Coronal (left), sagittal (middle) and axial (right) images with corresponding cervical (C) vertebral levels are shown; anatomical orientation: S superior, I inferior, R right, L left, A anterior, P posterior, as included in (a); anatomical plane order and direction orientation is the same in all other panels. (a), ${\text{T}}_2\text{w}$ sagittal sequence (b), ${\text{T}}_2^{\ast }\text{w}$ axial sequence with WM/GM segmentation and vertebral level labeling overlay (c). Diffusion non-weighted (i.e. ${\text{b}}_0$ scan in the first row of images) and weighted (i.e. DWI scan in the second row of images) images for the HARDI-ZOOMit protocol with Fourier domain interpolation during image reconstruction. Variable b (i.e. b-value) represents a magnitude of applied gradient waveform in the direction of a gradient vector g. Yellow arrows indicate areas of signal loss, green arrows the nerve roots in ${\text{b}}_0$ scan. (d) ${\text{b}}_0$ and DWI scans for the non-interpolated DTI-RESOLVE protocol. Order of ${\text{b}}_0$ and DWI scans and diffusion variable description same as in (c). Yellow arrows indicate locations of ghost artifacts, green arrows the nerve roots in ${\text{b}}_0$ scan. (e) ${\text{b}}_0$ (left) and DWI (right) scans for the non-interpolated HARDI-ZOOMit protocol. Diffusion variable description same as in (c). Yellow arrow indicate areas of signal loss, green arrows the nerve roots in ${\text{b}}_0$ scan. (f) Estimation of signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) in spinal cord DWI scans of investigated protocols.