Apparent diffusion coefficient in thoracolumbar intervertebral discs of healthy young volunteers

Abstract

Apparent diffusion coefficient values (ADC) of healthy intervertebral discs of young volunteers in the thoracolumbar spine were determined using a single‐shot EPI sequence. ADCz was in the lumbar spine slightly higher than ADCx or ADCy. In vivo diffusion measurements of intervertebral discs may offer a novel diagnostic tool to evaluate disc diseases in early phases. J. Magn. Reson. Imaging 2000;12:255–260. © 2000 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.

Diffusion-weighted imaging of the spine using radialk-space trajectories

“…These values agree well with our results displayed in Table 1. ADCs of the thoracolumbar intervertebral disks have been published by Kerttula et al [39]; their result for the ADC of the thoracic spine of (1.4 ± 0.3) · 10 −3 mm 2 /s without significant anisotropy agrees with our results as well.…”

“…Future studies will be required in order to show whether these data may indicate pre-symptomatic abnormalities such as damage or prolapse of a disk or fractures of vertebrae. The results in [39] show both an increasing ADC and an increasing anisotropy for the disks towards the lumbar spine, perhaps indicating that these parameters increase with mechanical stress or pressure and hence maybe useful in clinical diagnosis. Our own data do not extend over a sufficiently large part of the spine to show a significant dependence of these parameters on the position.…”

Quantitative MRI as a diagnostic tool of intervertebral disc matrix composition and integrity

“…Matrix metalloproteinases (MMPs) are a family of enzymes that are capable of degrading the major structural components of the IVD, and are thus involved in both the normal turnover and the degradation of the extracellular matrix [30]. MMP-1, -8, and -13 (collagenases) can cleave the triple helical part of the collagens types I, II, and III.…”

“…Since freedom of motion is restricted by interactions with other molecules, diffusion imaging can reflect molecular mobility and hence, microscopic changes in tissue organization [1,30,32]. Diffusion, measured as the apparent diffusion coefficient (ADC), is independent of the magnetic field strength, and MRI is the only in vivo technique presently capable of measuring diffusion directly from molecular displacements.…”

“…Diffusion, measured as the apparent diffusion coefficient (ADC), is independent of the magnetic field strength, and MRI is the only in vivo technique presently capable of measuring diffusion directly from molecular displacements. It has been shown that the ADC decreases in degenerated discs and that it correlates in a direction-dependent manner with disc water, proteoglycan content, and disc matrix integrity [1,30,31].…”