Does diffusion tensor data reflect pathological changes in the spinal cord with chronic injury?

作     者：Erjian Lin Houqing Long Guangsheng Li Wanlong Lei 

作者机构：Department of Radiology the Eastern Hospital of the First Affiliated Hospital Sun Yat-sen University Department of Spinal Surgery Huangpu Branch First Affiliated Hospital of Sun Yat-sen University Department of Orthopedics Affiliated Hospital of Guangdong Medical College Department of Human Anatomy and Histoembryology Zhongshan School of Medicine Sun Yat-sen University 

出 版 物：《Neural Regeneration Research》 (中国神经再生研究（英文版）)

年 卷 期：2013年第8卷第36期

页      面：3382-3390页

核心收录：

学科分类：1002[医学-临床医学] 100210[医学-外科学(含：普外、骨外、泌尿外、胸心外、神外、整形、烧伤、野战外)] 10[医学] 

基　　金：supported by the Natural Science Foundation of Guangdong Province of China,No.S2011010004843 the National Natural Science Foundation of China,No.30770679,31070941,30570572 the Major Basic Research of Ministry of Science and Technology of China(973 Project),No.2010CB530004 

主　　题：neural regeneration magnetic resonance cervical spinal cord compression pathology diffusion tensor imaging cervical cord cervical myelopathy neurofilament grants-supported paper neuroregeneration 

摘      要：Magnetic resonance diffusion tensor imaging has been shown to quantitatively measure the early pathological changes in chronic cervical spondylotic myelopathy. In this study, a novel spongy poly- urethane material was implanted in the rat C^-s epidural space to establish a rat model of chronic cervical spondylotic myelopathy. Diffusion tensor data were used to predict pathological changes. Results revealed that the fractional anisotropy value gradually decreased at 4, 24, and 72 hours and 1 week after injury in rat spinal cord, showing a time-dependent manner. Average diffusion coeffi- cient increased at 72 hours and 1 week after implantation. Hematoxylin-eosin staining and Luxol-fast-blue staining exhibited that the number of neurons in the anterior horn of the spinal cord gray matter and the nerve fiber density of the white matter gradually reduced with prolonged com- pression time. Neuronal loss was most significant at 1 week after injury. Results verified that the fractional anisotropy value and average diffusion coefficient reflected the degree of pathological change in the site of compression in rat models at various time points after chronic spinal cord compression injury, which potentially has a reference value in the early diagnosis of chronic cervical spondylotic myelopathy.