US Patent 11141080 Cervical vertebra angle measurement

This disclosure provides a method of measuring the axial rotation of a selected vertebra of a patient using a magnetic resonance (MR) image. The method includes: identifying, in the MR image, two or more features of the selected vertebra; determining a first axis connecting the identified features; identifying, in the MR image, two or more features of the patient's surrounding anatomy that are not features of the selected vertebra; determining a second axis connecting the identified features of the patient's surrounding anatomy; measuring the angular difference between the first and second axes; and determining the axial rotation of the cervical vertebra based on the measurement. In some examples of the disclosure, determining the axial rotation of the cervical vertebra is based on the degree of perpendicularity between the first and second axes.