Changes in lumbosacral spinal nerve roots on diffusion tensor imaging in spinal stenosis

作     者：Zhong-jun Hou Yong Huang Zi-wen Fan Xin-chun Li Bing-yi Cao 

作者机构：Department of Radiology the Second Affiliated Hospital of Guangzhou Medical University Department of Orthopedics the Second Affiliated Hospital of Guangzhou Medical University Department of Radiology the First Affiliated Hospital of Guangzhou Medical University 

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

年 卷 期：2015年第10卷第11期

页      面：1860-1864页

核心收录：

学科分类：1002[医学-临床医学] 100204[医学-神经病学] 10[医学] 

基　　金：supported by the Science and Technology Planning Project of Guangdong Province of China in 2012 No.2012B031800232 

主　　题：nerve regeneration magnetic resonance imaging diffusion tensor imaging lumbosacralarea degeneration nerve root fractional anisotropy neural regeneration 

摘      要：Lumbosacral degenerative disc disease is a common cause of lower back and leg pain. Conventional T1-weighted imaging（T1WI） and T2-weighted imaging（T2WI） scans are commonly used to image spinal cord degeneration. However, these modalities are unable to image the entire lumbosacral spinal nerve roots. Thus, in the present study, we assessed the potential of diffusion tensor imaging（DTI） for quantitative assessment of compressed lumbosacral spinal nerve roots. Subjects were 20 young healthy volunteers and 31 patients with lumbosacral stenosis. T2 WI showed that the residual dural sac area was less than two-thirds that of the corresponding normal area in patients from L3 to S1 stenosis. On T1 WI and T2 WI, 74 lumbosacral spinal nerve roots from 31 patients showed compression changes. DTI showed thinning and distortion in 36 lumbosacral spinal nerve roots（49%） and abruption in 17 lumbosacral spinal nerve roots（23%）. Moreover, fractional anisotropy values were reduced in the lumbosacral spinal nerve roots of patients with lumbosacral stenosis. These findings suggest that DTI can objectively and quantitatively evaluate the severity of lumbosacral spinal nerve root compression.