Clinical application of fast diffusion tensor imaging in acute spinal cord injury / 实用放射学杂志

ABSTRACT

Objective To study the diffusion tensor imaging (DTI)features in acute cervical spinal cord injury (CSCI)and evaluate its clinical value.Methods Eight patients with acute CSCI (within 72 hours after onset)were performed conventional MRI and fast DTI scans (112 seconds)and diffusion tensor tractography (DTT)at 3.0T Siemens Trio Tim system.Meanwhile,the fractional anisotropy (FA) values and apparent diffusion coefficient (ADC)values were calculated separately in the site of lesions,the upper and lower sections to the lesions.Then the data were analyzed by paired-samples t test analysis with SPSS 13.0 software.Results Cervical spinal cord injury occurred likely in the sites of C5-C6 (account for 4/8)and C4-C5 (account for 3/8).All MRI and DTI images were satisfied for clinical diagnosis.The FA value and ADC value of injury lesions were markedly lower than that of the normal cord.Accordingly,the injury lesions on FA map and ADC map presented low signals.There were no significant differences of FA values and ADC values between the upper and lower sections to the lesions.DTT could help in displaying the disruption of spinal fiber tract in lancination case and distortion fibers in closed cervical spinal cord injury.Conclusion Fast DTI sequence at 3.0 Tesla may obtain the qualified spinal cord images.By calculation of FA values and ADC values in CSCI patients,DTI may play an important role in detecting the changes of anisotropy and water diffusion caused by myelin sheath injury and cytotoxic edema and vasogenic edema respectively.