Diffusion Tensor Imaging of the Pediatric Spinal Cord at 1.5T: Preliminary Results

Abstract

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE:Recent studies suggest that pediatric subjects as old as 8-years-of-age may have difficulty with the ISNCSCI examinations. Our aim was to investigate DTI parameters of healthy spinal cord in children with noncervical IS for comparison with children with SCI and to prospectively evaluate reliability measures of DTI and to correlate the measures obtained in children with SCI with the ISNCSCI.

Diffusion Tensor Imaging of the Normal Cervical and Thoracic Pediatric Spinal Cord

“…The usefulness of DTI has been shown for examining the cervical SC in pediatric subjects. [5][6][7] However, a comprehensive study examining the diffusion characteristics and repeatability of DTI along the cervical and thoracic SC in pediatric subjects has not been reported. On the basis of the promising outcomes of previous pediatric studies and owing to the growing practice of obtaining DTI in clinical patients, 7,8 it is essential to establish normative pediatric DTI values along the cervical and thoracic SC to aid in the clinical interpretation of the injured SC.…”

Diffusion Tensor Imaging of the Normal Pediatric Spinal Cord Using an Inner Field of View Echo-Planar Imaging Sequence

“…While these sequences offer short acquisition times, which reduce motion-related artifacts, they are highly sensitive to susceptibility artifacts and eddy-current distortions. 14,15 Recent work using reduced FOV imaging sequences showed great reduction in geometric distortions when imaging the spinal cord. [16][17][18][19] This approach takes advantage of the small-diameter spinal cord morphology and applies a relatively small rectangular FOV to the area of interest.…”

Pulse-Triggered DTI Sequence with Reduced FOV and Coronal Acquisition at 3T for the Assessment of the Cervical Spinal Cord in Patients with Myelitis

“…Clinical disability is partly dependent on spinal cord lesions. Several studies reported the value of DTI for imaging the spinal cord at 1.5T, [1][2][3][4][5] particularly for the diagnosis of myelitis. [6][7][8][9] DTI parameters such as FA, MD, aD, and rD may help to distinguish myelin repair from axonal loss 10 or improve the detection of occult spinal cord pathology.…”