Premium
Severity of spinal cord injury influences diffusion tensor imaging of the brain
Author(s) -
Jirjis Michael B.,
Vedantam Aditya,
Budde Matthew D.,
Kalinosky Benjamin,
Kurpad Shekar N.,
Schmit Brian D.
Publication year - 2016
Publication title -
journal of magnetic resonance imaging
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.563
H-Index - 160
eISSN - 1522-2586
pISSN - 1053-1807
DOI - 10.1002/jmri.24964
Subject(s) - medicine , fractional anisotropy , diffusion mri , corticospinal tract , brainstem , spinal cord , spinal cord injury , internal capsule , anatomy , nuclear medicine , magnetic resonance imaging , radiology , white matter , psychiatry
Background The purpose of this study was to determine whether DTI changes in the brain induced by a thoracic spinal cord injury are sensitive to varying severity of spinal contusion in rats. Methods A control, mild, moderate, or severe contusion injury was administered over the eighth thoracic vertebral level in 32 Sprague‐Dawley rats. At 11 weeks postinjury, ex vivo DTI of the brain was performed on a 9.4T Bruker scanner using a pulsed gradient spin‐echo sequence. Results Mean water diffusion in the internal capsule regions of the brain and pyramid locations of the brainstem were correlated with motor function (r 2 = 0.55). Additionally, there were significant differences between injury severity groups for mean diffusivity and fractional anisotropy at regions associated with the corticospinal tract ( P = 0.05). Conclusion These results indicate that DTI is sensitive to changes in brain tissue as a consequence of thoracic SCI. J. MAGN. RESON. IMAGING 2016;43:63–74.