Preliminary study on cervical spinal cord in patients with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis using MR diffusion tensor...

Area of Science:

• Neurology
• Radiology
• Biomedical Engineering

Background:

• Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) is a progressive neurodegenerative disease affecting motor neurons.
• Conventional magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) often shows no apparent abnormalities in the cervical spinal cord of ALS patients.
• Diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) offers a more sensitive method for detecting microstructural changes in neural tissues.

Purpose of the Study:

• To evaluate conventional MRI findings in the cervical spinal cord of ALS patients.
• To explore DTI-derived changes in the cervical spinal cord of ALS patients.
• To correlate DTI findings with clinical parameters in ALS.

Main Methods:

• Conventional MRI and DTI were performed on 24 ALS patients and 16 controls.
• Regions of interest were placed in the spinothalamic tracts and lateral corticospinal tracts at the C2-C4 levels.
• Fractional anisotropy (FA) and apparent diffusion coefficient (ADC) values were calculated and compared between groups.

Main Results:

• No abnormalities were detected on conventional MRI in ALS patients.
• ALS patients showed significantly decreased FA and increased ADC values in the bilateral lateral corticospinal tracts compared to controls.
• No significant correlations were found between DTI parameters and clinical measures in ALS patients.

Conclusions:

• Quantitative DTI can detect subtle abnormalities in the lateral corticospinal tracts of the cervical spinal cord in ALS patients.
• These DTI changes are present even when the cervical spinal cord appears normal on conventional MRI.
• DTI may serve as a valuable tool for early detection and monitoring of spinal cord involvement in ALS.