Assessment of severity of leukoaraiosis: a diffusional kurtosis imaging study.

Objective The objective was to investigate the capabilities of diffusional kurtosis imaging (DKI) in detection of age-related white matter (WM) changes in elderly patients with leukoaraiosis. Material and methods Fractional anisotropy (FA), kurtosis, and diffusion parameters in the frontal lobe and parietal lobe were compared between 14 patients at Fazekas scale 0 and 1, and 15 patients at Fazekas scale 2 and 3. Results FA and DKI parameters were significantly altered in the ischemic lesions vs normal regions of WM in the severe patients. Conclusion DKI can provide sensitive imaging biomarkers for assessing the severity of leukoaraiosis in reference to Fazekas score. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]