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Updated: Dec 20, 2025
Diffusion Tensor Magnetic Resonance Imaging in Chronic Spinal Cord Compression
Published on: May 7, 2019
Diffusion tensor imaging reveals microstructural alteration of the trigeminal nerve root in classical trigeminal
Min Wu1, Jun Qiu2, Xiaofeng Jiang1
1Department of Neurosurgery, The First Affiliated Hospital of USTC (Anhui Provincial Hospital), Division of Life Sciences and Medicine, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei, Anhui, 230001, PR China; Anhui Provincial Stereotactic Neurosurgical Institute, Hefei, Anhui, 230001, PR China; Anhui Provincial Key Laboratory of Brain Function and Disease, Hefei, Anhui, 230001, PR China.
Objectives:
Diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) has been used to detect microstructural alteration and effect of surgical treatment of the trigeminal nerve root (TR) in patients with classical trigeminal neuralgia (CTN) underwent microvascular decompression (MVD). Patients with CTN without neurovascular compression (woNVC) is a special population of TN, however, the pathogenesy of CTN woNVC and the mechanism of internal neurolysis (IN) remain unknown.
Materials And Methods:
21 patients with CTN woNVC who underwent IN and 20 healthy controls were included in this study. The differences in the means, kurtosis and skewness of fractional anisotropy (FA) and apparent diffusion coefficient (ADC) between the affected and unaffected nerves in patients and both nerves in controls were investigated by independent t-test and paired t-test respectively. Longitudinal changes of FA and ADC were correlated with outcome of IN via Spearman correlation coefficient.
Results:
Significant differences were found in preoperative mean and kurtosis values for both FA and ADC of the affected side TR, compared to the unaffected side and control group respectively. However, these differences remarkably reduced postoperatively. Further, the Spearman correlation coefficient showed a strong negative correlation between decrease of ADC in the affected side and the surgical outcome in BNI total score.
Conclusion:
The changes of diffusive property of TR, especially the FA and ADC, provide alternative radiological evidence for evaluating the mechanism of CTN woNVC. The modification of DTI metrics could be an effective factor for providing potential noninvasive biomarkers for determining the prognosis of patients with CTN woNVC underwent IN.
