title: Severity of spinal cord injury influences diffusion tensor imaging of the brain.
abstract: 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).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  These results indicate that DTI is sensitive to changes in brain tissue as a consequence of thoracic SCI.
authors.affiliation: Department of Biomedical Engineering, Marquette University, Milwaukee, Wisconsin, USA.
authors.forename: Michael B
authors.initials: MB
authors.lastname: Jirjis
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurosurgery, Medical College of Wisconsin, Milwaukee, Wisconsin, USA.
authors.forename: Aditya
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Vedantam
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurosurgery, Medical College of Wisconsin, Milwaukee, Wisconsin, USA.
authors.forename: Matthew D
authors.initials: MD
authors.lastname: Budde
authors.affiliation: Department of Biomedical Engineering, Marquette University, Milwaukee, Wisconsin, USA.
authors.forename: Benjamin
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Kalinosky
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurosurgery, Medical College of Wisconsin, Milwaukee, Wisconsin, USA.
authors.forename: Shekar N
authors.initials: SN
authors.lastname: Kurpad
authors.affiliation: Department of Biomedical Engineering, Marquette University, Milwaukee, Wisconsin, USA.
authors.forename: Brian D
authors.initials: BD
authors.lastname: Schmit
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001921:Brain / Q000473:pathology*; D001927:Brain Diseases / Q000209:etiology* / Q000473:pathology*; D056324:Diffusion Tensor Imaging / Q000379:methods*; D005260:Female; D007090:Image Interpretation, Computer-Assisted / Q000379:methods; D051381:Rats; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity; D013119:Spinal Cord Injuries / Q000209:etiology* / Q000473:pathology*; D015599:Trauma Severity Indices
keywords: brain; diffusion tensor imaging; rat; spinal cord injury