RÉSUMÉ
Objective To investigate the clinical application value of the non-shared incentive diffusion weighted imaging(ZOOM-DWI)technique at cervical level in diagnosis of cervical spondylotic myelopathy(CSM).Methods A total of 49 CSM patients(patient group),and 50 healthy volunteers(control group)were recruited.All subjects underwent conventional MRI and ZOOM-DWI of the cervical spine and neurologic modified Japanese Orthopaedic Association(mJOA)scores in patients with CSM.The apparent diffusion coefficient(ADC)value in the spinal cord at the narrowest area(C5-C6)of the compression site of patients,the ADC value at the disc level in each upper and lower level,and the spinal ADC value at the cervical level C2-C3 were measured.The ADC values of control group C2-C3,C3-C4,C4-C5,C5-C6,C6-C7 were measured.Within-group comparisons of the spinal cord ADC values for each segment between patient and control groups were performed using analysis of variance and post hoc comparisons(SNK-q).The ADC values at the narrowest point of the patient group and control group were tested by independent sample t-test.The Pearson correlation analysis was performed between patients'C5-C6 ADC values and mJOA scores.Results The mean ADC values showed no significantly different levels in the control group.Among the ADC values at each measurement level in the patient group,except for C4-C5 and C6-C7 where the difference was not statistically significant,the remaining pair-wise comparisons all showed statisti-cally significant differences(F=24.368,P＜0.001),with the highest ADC value at C5-C6.The C5-C6 ADC value in the patient group was significantly higher compared to the control group(t=9.414,P＜0.001),with statistical significance.The ADC values at the patient stenosis showed a significant negative correlation with the mJOA score(r=-0.493,P＜0.001).Conclusion Cervical ZOOM-DWI technique can be applied to diagnose CSM,and spinal ADC values can be used as reliable imaging data for diagnosing CSM.