title: Application value of diffusional kurtosis imaging (DKI) in evaluating microstructural changes in the spinal cord of patients with early cervical spondylotic myelopathy.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To investigate the application value of diffusional kurtosis imaging (DKI) in evaluating microstructural changes in the spinal cord of patients with early cervical spondylotic myelopathy (CSM).
  
  
  METHODS
  Twenty-five patients with early clinical stage CSM and twenty-five healthy controls underwent 3.0T MR scans with conventional MRI sequences and DKI with echo-planar imaging (EPI) sequence. DKI metrics such as fractional anisotropy (FA), mean diffusivity (MD), and mean diffusional kurtosis (MK) values were calculated separately for white matter (WM) and gray matter (GM).
  
  
  RESULTS
  MK of the WM and GM were significantly higher in patients with early CSM than in healthy controls (P<0.005).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  MK can reflect microstructural changes of white matter and gray matter of spinal cord in patients with early CSM and has the potential to provide new information prior to conventional diffusion metrics such as MD and FA.
authors.affiliation: Department of Radiology, Shengjing Hospital of China Medical University, Shenyang 110004, PR China; Department of Radiology, People's Hospital of China Medical University & Liaoning Provincial People's Hospital, Shenyang 110004, PR China.
authors.forename: Daowei
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Li
authors.affiliation: Department of Radiology, Shengjing Hospital of China Medical University, Shenyang 110004, PR China. Electronic address: wangxm024@163.com.
authors.forename: Xiaoming
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Wang
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D016880:Anisotropy; D002574:Cervical Vertebrae / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging*; D038524:Diffusion Magnetic Resonance Imaging / Q000379:methods*; D017352:Echo-Planar Imaging; D005260:Female; D066128:Gray Matter / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging; D006801:Humans; D007091:Image Processing, Computer-Assisted / Q000379:methods*; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D013116:Spinal Cord / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging*; D013118:Spinal Cord Diseases / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging*; D013168:Spondylolisthesis / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging*; D066127:White Matter / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: Cervical spondylosis; Cervical spondylotic myelopathy; Diffusion kurtosis imaging; Diffusion tensor imaging; Spinal cord