Back to Search
Start Over
Reduced Field-of-View Diffusion Tensor Imaging of the Spinal Cord Shows Motor Dysfunction of the Lower Extremities in Patients With Cervical Compression Myelopathy
- Source :
- Spine. 43(2)
- Publication Year :
- 2015
-
Abstract
- Study design A cross-sectional study. Objective The aim of this study was to quantify spinal cord dysfunction at the tract level in patients with cervical compressive myelopathy (CCM) using reduced field-of-view (rFOV) diffusion tensor imaging (DTI). Summary of background data Although magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) is the standard used for radiological evaluation of CCM, information acquired by MRI does not necessarily reflect the severity of spinal cord disorder. There is a growing interest in developing imaging methods to quantify spinal cord dysfunction. To acquire high-resolution DTI, a new scheme using rFOV has been proposed. Methods We enrolled 10 healthy volunteers and 20 patients with CCM in this study. The participants were studied using a 3.0-T MRI system. For DTI acquisitions, diffusion-weighted spin-echo rFOV single-shot echo-planar imaging was used. Regions-of-interest (ROI) for the lateral column (LC) and posterior column (PC) tracts were determined on the basis of a map of fractional anisotropy (FA) of the spinal cord and FA values were measured. The FA of patients with CCM was compared with that of healthy controls and correlated with Japanese Orthopaedic Association (JOA) score. Results In LC and PC tracts, FA values in patients with CCM were significantly lower than in healthy volunteers. Total JOA scores correlated moderately with FA in LC and PC tracts. JOA subscores for motor dysfunction of the lower extremities correlated strongly with FA in LC and PC tracts. Conclusion It is feasible to evaluate the cervical spinal cord at the tract level using rFOV DTI. Although FA values at the maximum compression level were not well correlated with total JOA scores, they were strongly correlated with JOA subscores for motor dysfunction of the lower extremities. Our findings suggest that FA reflects white matter dysfunction below the maximum compression level and FA can be used as an imaging biomarker of spinal cord dysfunction. Level of evidence 4.
- Subjects :
- Adult
Male
Pathology
medicine.medical_specialty
Imaging biomarker
Spinal Cord Disorder
030218 nuclear medicine & medical imaging
White matter
Diffusion
03 medical and health sciences
Myelopathy
0302 clinical medicine
Fractional anisotropy
medicine
Humans
Orthopedics and Sports Medicine
Aged
medicine.diagnostic_test
business.industry
Echo-Planar Imaging
Magnetic resonance imaging
Middle Aged
medicine.disease
Spinal cord
Magnetic Resonance Imaging
medicine.anatomical_structure
Cross-Sectional Studies
Diffusion Tensor Imaging
Lower Extremity
Spinal Cord
Anisotropy
Female
Neurology (clinical)
business
Nuclear medicine
Spinal Cord Compression
030217 neurology & neurosurgery
Diffusion MRI
Subjects
Details
- ISSN :
- 15281159
- Volume :
- 43
- Issue :
- 2
- Database :
- OpenAIRE
- Journal :
- Spine
- Accession number :
- edsair.doi.dedup.....73e054134207d066c6fe47832e031832