NCT05242666

Quantiative MRI and Myelin-PET for the Assessment of Degenerative Cervical Myelopathy

Evaluating Advanced Imaging Techniques for Use in the Assessment of Degenerative Cervical Myelopathy

• Status: Unknown
• Phase: N/A
• Study type: Interventional
• Enrollment: 100 (estimated)
• Sponsor: Cambridge University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust · Academic / Other
• Sex: All
• Age: 18 Years
• Healthy volunteers: Accepted

Summary

To use advanced imaging techniques, including MRI Brain and Spinal Cord, and MRI/PET Spinal Cord to provide an assessment of Degenerative Cervical Myelopathy to improve understanding of the pathophysiology and natural history of DCM.

Detailed description

Degenerative Cervical Myelopathy (DCM) is a disabling condition affecting up to 2% of adults. It arises when arthritic changes in the cervical spine compress and injure the spinal cord, causing progressive loss of bodily function. Surgery will remove compression and stop injury. However, for a full recovery, it must occur before irreversible spinal cord damage. Current assessments cannot provide this information and today, 95% of patients are left disabled: an assessment that measures spinal cord damage would change this tomorrow. Imaging advances, well established for measuring disease of the brain, have the potential to provide this in DCM, but requires further investigation. This is the subject of this proposed application: specifically, to investigate 3 different but promising imaging approaches for the assessment of DCM: 1. Advanced magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) to image within the spinal cord 2. Advanced MRI to measure the changes that occur within the brain following DCM 3. Positron Emission Tomography (PET) to measure the active disease biology within the spinal cord. Individuals with a diagnosis of DCM, will be invited to undergo one of these options, before and after their surgical treatment. Clinical measures used in routine practice will be noted, in order to draw comparisons with imaging. A healthy control group will also be used for MRI imaging, in order to identify changes specific to DCM. Aside from the additional imaging, there will be no changes in routine care.

Conditions

• Cervical Spondylosis With Myelopathy
• Degenerative Cervical Myelopathy

Interventions

Type	Name	Description
DIAGNOSTIC_TEST	3T MR Imaging of the cervical spinal cord	Patients will undergo either Magnetic Resonance Imaging of the Spinal Cord
OTHER	Positron Emission Tomography using [11C]PIB	Patients will undergo combination MRI/PET using a \[11C\]PIB radiotracer
OTHER	3T MR Imaging of the Brain	3T MR Imaging of the Brain
OTHER	7T MR Imaging of the Spinal Cord	7T MR Imaging of the Spinal Cord

Timeline

• Start date: 2021-04-17
• Primary completion: 2025-02-01
• Completion: 2025-02-01
• First posted: 2022-02-16
• Last updated: 2022-05-27

Locations

1 site across 1 country: United Kingdom