Clinical Application of Diffusion Tensor Imaging for a Brachial Plexus Injury

Abstract

Brachial plexus injuries are commonly diagnosed clinically, as conventional imaging has a low sensitivity. In recent years, diffusion tensor imaging has established a clinical role in the study of the central nervous system and, while still presenting some limitations due to the technical complexity of the acquisition method, is showing promising results when applied to peripheral nerves. Moreover, deterministic fiber tracking with the Euler’s method and multishell acquisition are two novel advances in the field which contribute to enhancing the reliability of the technique reducing the respiratory and inhomogeneity artifacts in this “magnetically complex” region, and better isolating the fibers in a heterogeneous territory. Here, we report a case of brachial plexus traumatic injury, a healthy reference subject, and details on the acquisition protocol of the reconstruction algorithm.

Magnetic resonance imaging for diagnosis of suspected neurogenic thoracic outlet syndrome-a systematic scoping review

“…DTI has been evaluated experimentally for imaging of the brachial plexus in animal models of nerve injury ( Chen et al, 2022 ) and in healthy volunteers ( Oudeman et al, 2018 ) and as a proof of concept for avulsion injuries ( Wader et al, 2020 ). Some authors report clinical use of diffusion images in their MRI protocol despite the artifacts ( Vara et al, 2022 ). Only one study reported use of DTI specifically for nTOS and reported abnormalities in 30% of patients of those who also had morphological changes in standard 3.0 T MRI exam.…”