Validation of mean upper cervical cord area (MUCCA) measurement techniques in multiple sclerosis (MS): High reproducibility and robustness to lesions, but large software and scanner effects.

•Mean upper cervical cord area (MUCCA) was obtained with five different methods.•MUCCA was determined in a unique scan-rescan multi-vendor MR study.•Reproducibility: MUCCA did not differ between scan-rescan images for any method.•Robustness: MUCCA differed between methods and between scanners.•Performance of MUCCA methods was not affected by the presence of lesions.