Applications Of DTI In The Cervical Spinal Demyelination Diseases And Acute Transverse Myelitis

Objectives:Using the3.0Tesla diffusion tensor imaging technology, this studyanalyzed the pathological features of MS，NMO and acute myelitisquantitatively，in order to further learn and understand these threecommon diseases of spinal cord of neurology，then offering certaindegree assistances to the differential diagnosis，properly treatment andprognosis of these diseases.Materials and methods:This study recruited9patients in neurological department of JilinUniversity Bethune first hospital from2013January to2014January，ofwhich patient No.1and No.2were according to the diagnostic criteria ofacute transverse myelitis，patient No.3，4，5were diagnosed NMO whomet the diagnostic criteria of Wingerchuk， patient No.6-9wereaccording to the diagnostic criteria of McDonald. At the same time，werecruited9age-sex-matched volunteers without any neurologic disorder.Based the relevant data we collected，the study carried out the followingsets of analysis and comparison.1.The comparison of the acute phase of MS patients，who without hyper-intensive T2in spinal cord，with the normal control group.2．The comparison of the acute phase and silent phase of MS patients，who have abnormal hyper-intensive T2in spinal cord，with the normalcontrol group.3. The comparison of the acute phase of NMO patients positive lesions，appearing-normal regions，and the normal control group.4. The comparison of hyper-intensive T2regions of cervical spinal ofAcute Transverse Myelitis patients and the healthy volunteers.5. The comparison of positive lesions of patient No.4and patient No.9inthe cervical spinal cord.6. The comparison of left and right column of patient of all patients.7. The comparison of left and right column of the center of positvelesions of patient No.1-5、9.All subjects were imaged using a Siemens3.0T Trio Tim MRIsystem (Siemens， Erlangen， Germany).Statistical analysis wasperformed by using the SPSS17.0Windows software package. All datawere record as mean±standard deviation，statistical significance levelwas set as a=0.05，significant difference was defined as P＜0.05.Results:1. FA values of acute phase of MS patients without hyper-intensive T2in spinal cord were lower than normal control groups（P＜0.05）; theFA values of acute and silent lesions in the cervical spinal cord of MS patients were lower than the normal control groups（P＜0.05），andthe former were more serious than the latter（P＜0.05）; theintensity of FA map and DEC map in the lesions of MS were down,we did not found the size of lesions on FA and DEC maps wasincreased compared with that on conventional MRI. Sparse of fiberpathway in MS lesions were detected on DTT maps.2. The FA values of T2-abnormal-appearing regions andT2-normal-appearing regions of acute phase NMO patient wereobviously lower compared with the normal control group volunteers（P＜0.05）.3. In the cervical spinal, the FA value of lesions of acute transversemyelitis patient were lower than the normal control groups（P＜0.05）.4. In the center of the cervical spinal lesion，the FA values of NMOpatient were decreased more than MS patien（tP＜0.05）, the intensityof FA map and DEC map in the lesions of NMO were down, reduceof fiber pathway in NMO lesions were detected on DTT maps.5. In the cervical spinal，the differences of the FA values of the left andright column of all kinds of our patients were meaningless（P＞0.05）;whereas,in the left and right of the center of cervical spinallesions, one of MS patients and one of NMO patients showsmarkedly differences （P＜0.05）. Conclusion:1. Subtle lesions could be found in the cervical spinal of Cerebral styleof MS patient;2. Subtle lesions could be found in the NASC regions of NMO patients，and there is extensive damage in NMO patients in comparison to MSpatients in the center region of lesion;3. In some degree，DTI could be as a good tool for quantitativelyassessing damage level of MS、NMO and Acute Transverse Myelitis，and then could be a predictor of these diseases simultaneously;...