Sept. 11, 2025 — A new PET tracer can provide insights into how spinal cord injuries affect not only the spinal cord, but also the brain, according to new research published in The Journal of Nuclear Medicine. According to the National Spinal Cord Injury Statistical Center, the annual incidence of traumatic spinal cord injury is about 54 cases per one million people, and approximately 308,600 people in the United States live with a spinal cord injury. Current clinical spinal cord injury diagnosis relies on anatomic techniques such as x-ray and CT, which assess spinal integrity but provide limited physiologic and pathologic information. The uptake of 18F-SynVesT-1 in the amygdala and cerebellum was also lower in spinal cord injury rats, and ex vivo DTI analysis revealed fiber damage in the internal capsule and somatosensory cortex. “Our work has potential to revolutionize the way spinal cord injury is diagnosed and monitored in the clinic,” noted Cai.