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.

https://raw.githubusercontent.com/spinalcordtoolbox/doc-figures/master/shape-metric-computation/csa-angles.png

To demonstrate, below are the angles provided in the CSV file produced by CSA (Per level).

AP and RL angles produced in csa_perlevel.csv

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

145:168

4

0.786147335100443

3.673069254459607

12.111419749484227

5.039790633694757

single_subject/data/t2/t2_seg.nii.gz

169:189

3

1.907059804420168

2.32868096283306

8.260995698615469

3.48906455114369