Diffusion Tensor Imaging of Changes of White Matter in Patients with Motor Neuron Disease / 华中科技大学学报(医学版)

ABSTRACT

Objective To quantitatively assess the changes of white matter in 15 patients with motor neuron disease by dif-fusion tensor imaging(DTI)and to explore the possible pathogenesis.Methods Fifteen patients with a diagnosis of motor neu-ron disease and sixteen age- and sex-matched controls without disorders affecting the central nervous system received 3.0T DTI;whole-brain white matter damage was examined using tract-based spatial statistics(TBSS),and fractional anisotropy(FA), mean diffusivity(MD),λ1,λ2,λ3were extracted from the damage region.The data were analyzed by t-test to disclose the differ-ences of white matter between patients and controls.Results As compared with the control group,FA was significantly de-creased(P=0.034)in the left corticospinal tract(CST),while λ2(P=0.124)and λ3(P=0.064)had a trend to increase,but FA(P=0.050)in the right CST had a trend to decrease in the experimental group.However,λ1and MD were not significantly different between the two groups.Conclusion DTI can quantitatively evaluate CST degeneration in patients with motor neuron disease,which may be caused by demyelination.