Authors: Petersen JA, Wilm BJ, von Meyenburg J, Schubert M, Seifert B, Najafi Y, Dietz V, Kollias S.
Source: J Neurotrauma. 2011 Dec 7
Petersen at al. from Zurich report that diffusion tensor MR imaging (DTMRI) correlates with clinical and electrophysiological measures in Chronic cervical spinal cord injury.
The authors state
that: "Diffusion tensor
MR imaging (DTI) is rarely applied in spinal cord injury (SCI). The aim
of this study is correlate diffusion properties after SCI with
electrophysiological and neurological measures. 19 traumatic SCI
subjects and 28
age-matched healthy subjects participated in this study. DTI data of
the spinal cord were acquired on a Philips Achieva 3 T MR scanner using
an outer volume suppressed, reduced field of view (FOV) acquisition
with oblique slice excitation and a single-shot EPI readout. Motor
(MEP) and somatosensory (SSEP) evoked potentials as well as
neurological measures (ASIA impairment scale) were assessed in SCI
subjects. In SCI subjects, Fractional anisotropy (FA) values were
decreased as compared to healthy subjects. In upper cervical segments,
the decrease in FA was significant for the evaluation of the entire
cross sectional area of the spinal cord as well as for motor and
sensory tracts. At thoracic levels, there was a trend of decrease for
the corticospinal tracts. The decrease of DTI values correlated with
SSEP amplitudes and with the clinical completeness of SCI. The reduced
DTI values in the SCI subjects are likely to be due to demyelination
and axonal degeneration of spinal tracts, which are related to clinical
and electrophysiological measures. A reduction of DTI values in regions
remote from the injury site suggests their involvement by Wallerian
axonal degeneration. DTI can be used as a quantitative tool for
evaluating the extent of spinal cord damage and for monitoring the
effects of future regeneration inducing treatments".
Link for the abstract: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22150011
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