Verify the correctness of the metrics¶
You may have noticed that the csv files generated by sct_process_segmentation also include the angles between the cord centerline and the normal to the axial plane. angle_AP
corresponds to the angle about the AP axis, while angle_RL
corresponds to the angle about the RL axis. These angles are used to correct for the tilt of the spinal cord relative to the superior-inferior axis. Therefore, if you obtain inconsistent CSA values, it is a good habit to verify that the values of these angles are reasonable.

To demonstrate, below are the angles provided in the CSV file produced by CSA (Per level).
Filename |
Slice (I->S) |
VertLevel |
MEAN(angle_AP) |
STD(angle_AP) |
MEAN(angle_RL) |
STD(angle_RL) |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
single_subject/data/t2/t2_seg.nii.gz |
143:164 |
4 |
0.95197 |
0.2383 |
11.40617 |
0.3825 |
single_subject/data/t2/t2_seg.nii.gz |
165:186 |
3 |
1.69266 |
0.52528 |
8.58325 |
1.23014 |