Microstructural Changes in Compressed Cervical Spinal Cord Are Consistent With Clinical Symptoms and Symptom Duration

Area of Science:

• Neuroimaging
• Spinal Cord Imaging
• Biomarker Discovery

Background:

• Limited understanding of microstructural changes in single-level cervical spinal cord compression.
• Need for objective measures correlating with clinical presentation in cervical spondylotic myelopathy (CSM).

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate the association between diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) metrics and clinical symptoms in patients with single-level CSM.
• To explore DTI's potential as a biomarker for spinal cord dysfunction.

Main Methods:

• Prospective study involving 29 CSM patients and 29 controls.
• Diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) with tractography to assess cervical spinal cord microstructure.
• Evaluation of clinical symptoms using modified Japanese Orthopaedic Association (mJOA) scores and symptom duration.

Main Results:

• CSM patients showed significantly lower fractional anisotropy (FA) and higher apparent diffusion coefficient (ADC) values compared to controls.
• FA values positively correlated with mJOA scores in CSM patients.
• mJOA scores negatively correlated with ADC values and symptom duration.

Conclusions:

• Diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) effectively measures microstructural changes in the cervical spinal cord.
• DTI parameters (FA and ADC) show potential as biomarkers for spinal cord dysfunction in CSM.