T1w and T2w age-grouped pediatric templates

Pediatric spinal cord templates generated for the following age groups : 10-12, 13-15 and 16-17.

Details on this release

Summary of template-generation

1. Data pre-processing

Data was first segmented using sct_deepseg with the contrast agnostic model v2.4 (SCT release 6.4). Manual corrections were done when necessary.

Vertebral labeling was then performed automatically using sct_label_vertebrae. For images where the automatic approach failed, the C2-C3 disc was manually labeled using sct_label_utils, and passing the resulting file to sct_label_vertebrae.

2. Data normalization

Data was normalized using preprocess_normalize.py .
Visual inspection of the straightened images was performed to ensure all images were adequate for template generation.

3. Template generation

Templates were generated for all three age groups separately, using generate_template.py on an Alliance Canada cluster with 10 CPUs per task and 3G of memory per CPU core. The template generation was stopped after 12 iterations.

Current templates

The current T1w and T2w templates were generated for each age group (10-12, 13-15 and 16-17), using the following number of participants :

Age groups	T1w template	T2w template
10-12	14	10
13-15	18	21
16-17	18	13

The templates cover the spinal cord from C2 to T11.