title: Changes in lumbosacral spinal nerve roots on diffusion tensor imaging in spinal stenosis.
abstract: Lumbosacral degenerative disc disease is a common cause of lower back and leg pain. Conventional T1-weighted imaging (T1WI) and T2-weighted imaging (T2WI) scans are commonly used to image spinal cord degeneration. However, these modalities are unable to image the entire lumbosacral spinal nerve roots. Thus, in the present study, we assessed the potential of diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) for quantitative assessment of compressed lumbosacral spinal nerve roots. Subjects were 20 young healthy volunteers and 31 patients with lumbosacral stenosis. T2WI showed that the residual dural sac area was less than two-thirds that of the corresponding normal area in patients from L3 to S1 stenosis. On T1WI and T2WI, 74 lumbosacral spinal nerve roots from 31 patients showed compression changes. DTI showed thinning and distortion in 36 lumbosacral spinal nerve roots (49%) and abruption in 17 lumbosacral spinal nerve roots (23%). Moreover, fractional anisotropy values were reduced in the lumbosacral spinal nerve roots of patients with lumbosacral stenosis. These findings suggest that DTI can objectively and quantitatively evaluate the severity of lumbosacral spinal nerve root compression.
authors.affiliation: Department of Radiology, the Second Affiliated Hospital of Guangzhou Medical University, Guangzhou, Guangdong Province, China.
authors.forename: Zhong-Jun
authors.identifier: 0000-0002-5916-7206
authors.initials: ZJ
authors.lastname: Hou
authors.affiliation: Department of Radiology, the Second Affiliated Hospital of Guangzhou Medical University, Guangzhou, Guangdong Province, China.
authors.forename: Yong
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Huang
authors.affiliation: Department of Orthopedics, the Second Affiliated Hospital of Guangzhou Medical University, Guangzhou, Guangdong Province, China.
authors.forename: Zi-Wen
authors.initials: ZW
authors.lastname: Fan
authors.affiliation: Department of Radiology, the First Affiliated Hospital of Guangzhou Medical University, Guangzhou, Guangdong Province, China.
authors.forename: Xin-Chun
authors.initials: XC
authors.lastname: Li
authors.affiliation: Department of Radiology, the Second Affiliated Hospital of Guangzhou Medical University, Guangzhou, Guangdong Province, China.
authors.forename: Bing-Yi
authors.initials: BY
authors.lastname: Cao
keywords: degeneration; diffusion tensor imaging; fractional anisotropy; lumbosacral area; magnetic resonance imaging; nerve regeneration; nerve root; neural regeneration