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Talbott JF, Shah V, Ye AQ. Diffusion Imaging of the Spinal Cord: Clinical Applications. Radiol Clin North Am 2024; 62:273-285. [PMID: 38272620 DOI: 10.1016/j.rcl.2023.10.002] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 01/27/2024]
Abstract
Spinal cord pathologic condition often presents as a neurologic emergency where timely and accurate diagnosis is critical to expedite appropriate treatment and minimize severe morbidity and even mortality. MR imaging is the gold standard imaging technique for diagnosing patients with suspected spinal cord pathologic condition. This review will focus on the basic principles of diffusion imaging and how spinal anatomy presents technical challenges to its application. Both the promises and shortcomings of spinal diffusion imaging will then be explored in the context of several clinical spinal cord pathologies for which diffusion has been evaluated.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jason F Talbott
- Department of Radiology and Biomedical Imaging, Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital and Trauma Center, 1001 Potrero Avenue, Room 1X57, San Francisco, CA 94110, USA; Brain and Spinal Injury Center, Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital.
| | - Vinil Shah
- Department of Radiology and Biomedical Imaging, Neuroradiology Division, University of California San Francisco, 505 Parnassus Avenue, #M-391, San Francisco, CA 94143, USA
| | - Allen Q Ye
- Department of Radiology and Biomedical Imaging, Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital and Trauma Center, 1001 Potrero Avenue, Room 1X57, San Francisco, CA 94110, USA; Department of Radiology and Biomedical Imaging, Neuroradiology Division, University of California San Francisco, 505 Parnassus Avenue, #M-391, San Francisco, CA 94143, USA
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Sirén A, Nyman M, Syvänen J, Mattila K, Hirvonen J. Emergency MRI in Spine Trauma of Children and Adolescents-A Pictorial Review. CHILDREN (BASEL, SWITZERLAND) 2023; 10:1094. [PMID: 37508591 PMCID: PMC10378627 DOI: 10.3390/children10071094] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/04/2023] [Revised: 06/19/2023] [Accepted: 06/20/2023] [Indexed: 07/30/2023]
Abstract
Severe spinal trauma is uncommon in the pediatric population, but due to the potentially devastating consequences of missed injury, it poses a diagnostic challenge in emergency departments. Diagnostic imaging is often needed to exclude or confirm the injury and to assess its extent. Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) offers an excellent view of both bony and soft tissue structures and their traumatic findings without exposing children to ionizing radiation. Our pictorial review aims to demonstrate the typical traumatic findings, physiological phenomena, and potential pitfalls of emergency MRI in the trauma of the growing spine.
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Affiliation(s)
- Aapo Sirén
- Department of Radiology, University of Turku and Turku University Hospital, Kiinamyllynkatu 4-8, 20520 Turku, Finland
| | - Mikko Nyman
- Department of Radiology, University of Turku and Turku University Hospital, Kiinamyllynkatu 4-8, 20520 Turku, Finland
| | - Johanna Syvänen
- Department of Pediatric Orthopedic Surgery, University of Turku and Turku University Hospital, 20520 Turku, Finland
| | - Kimmo Mattila
- Department of Radiology, University of Turku and Turku University Hospital, Kiinamyllynkatu 4-8, 20520 Turku, Finland
| | - Jussi Hirvonen
- Department of Radiology, University of Turku and Turku University Hospital, Kiinamyllynkatu 4-8, 20520 Turku, Finland
- Medical Imaging Center, Department of Radiology, Tampere University and Tampere University Hospital, 33100 Tampere, Finland
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Cheng SJ, Tsai PH, Lee YT, Li YT, Chung HW, Chen CY. Diffusion Tensor Imaging of the Spinal Cord. Magn Reson Imaging Clin N Am 2021; 29:195-204. [PMID: 33902903 DOI: 10.1016/j.mric.2021.02.002] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 01/11/2023]
Abstract
Spinal cord often is regarded as one of the last territories in the central nervous system where diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) can be used to probe white matter architecture. This article reviews current progress in spinal cord DTI, starting with anatomic properties and technical challenges that make spinal cord DTI a difficult task. Several possibilities offered by advanced pulse sequences that might overcome the difficulties are addressed, with associated trade-offs and limitations. Potential clinical assistance also is discussed in various spinal cord pathologies, such as myelopathy due to external compression, spinal cord tumors, acute ischemia, traumatic injury, and so forth.
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Affiliation(s)
- Sho-Jen Cheng
- Department of Medical Imaging, Taipei Medical University Hospital, 252 Wu-Hsing Street, Taipei 110, Taiwan
| | - Ping-Huei Tsai
- Department of Medical Imaging and Radiological Sciences, Chung-Shan Medical University, No.110, Sec.1, Jianguo N. Road, Taichung 40201, Taiwan
| | - Yun-Ting Lee
- Translational Imaging Research Center, Taipei Medical University Hospital, 252 Wu-Hsing Street, Taipei 110, Taiwan
| | - Yi-Tien Li
- Translational Imaging Research Center, Taipei Medical University Hospital, 252 Wu-Hsing Street, Taipei 110, Taiwan
| | - Hsiao-Wen Chung
- Graduate Institute of Biomedical Electronics and Bioinformatics, National Taiwan University, No.1, Sec.4, Roosevelt Road, Taipei 10617, Taiwan; Department of Electrical Engineering, National Taiwan University, No.1, Sec.4, Roosevelt Road, Taipei 10617, Taiwan.
| | - Cheng-Yu Chen
- Department of Medical Imaging, Taipei Medical University Hospital, 252 Wu-Hsing Street, Taipei 110, Taiwan; Translational Imaging Research Center, Taipei Medical University Hospital, 252 Wu-Hsing Street, Taipei 110, Taiwan; Department of Radiology, School of Medicine, College of Medicine, Taipei Medical University, 250 Wu-Hsing Street, Taipei 110, Taiwan
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MR Imaging for Assessing Injury Severity and Prognosis in Acute Traumatic Spinal Cord Injury. Radiol Clin North Am 2019; 57:319-339. [DOI: 10.1016/j.rcl.2018.09.004] [Citation(s) in RCA: 25] [Impact Index Per Article: 5.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 02/03/2023]
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Budde MD, Skinner NP. Diffusion MRI in acute nervous system injury. JOURNAL OF MAGNETIC RESONANCE (SAN DIEGO, CALIF. : 1997) 2018; 292:137-148. [PMID: 29773299 DOI: 10.1016/j.jmr.2018.04.016] [Citation(s) in RCA: 19] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/04/2017] [Revised: 04/06/2018] [Accepted: 04/27/2018] [Indexed: 06/08/2023]
Abstract
Diffusion weighted magnetic resonance imaging (DWI) and related techniques such as diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) are uniquely sensitive to the microstructure of the brain and spinal cord. In the acute aftermath of nervous system injury, for example, DWI reveals changes caused by injury that remains invisible on other MRI contrasts such as T2-weighted imaging. This ability has led to a demonstrated clinical utility in cerebral ischemia. However, despite strong promise in preclinical models and research settings, DWI has not been as readily adopted for other acute injuries such as traumatic spinal cord, brain, or peripheral nerve injury. Furthermore, the precise biophysical mechanisms that underlie DWI and DTI changes are not fully understood. In this report, we review the DWI and DTI changes that occur in acute neurological injury of cerebral ischemia, spinal cord injury, traumatic brain injury, and peripheral nerve injury. Their associations with the underlying biology are examined with an emphasis on the role of acute axon and dendrite beading. Lastly, emerging DWI techniques to overcome the limitations of DTI are discussed as these may offer the needed improvements to translate to clinical settings.
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Affiliation(s)
- Matthew D Budde
- Department of Neurosurgery, Medical College of Wisconsin, Milwaukee, WI, United States.
| | - Nathan P Skinner
- Department of Neurosurgery, Medical College of Wisconsin, Milwaukee, WI, United States; Medical Scientist Training Program, Medical College of Wisconsin, Milwaukee, WI, United States
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Tins BJ. Imaging investigations in Spine Trauma: The value of commonly used imaging modalities and emerging imaging modalities. J Clin Orthop Trauma 2017; 8:107-115. [PMID: 28720986 PMCID: PMC5498756 DOI: 10.1016/j.jcot.2017.06.012] [Citation(s) in RCA: 14] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/11/2017] [Accepted: 06/03/2017] [Indexed: 10/19/2022] Open
Abstract
Traumatic spine injuries can be devastating for patients affected and for health care professionals if preventable neurological deterioration occurs. This review discusses the imaging options for the diagnosis of spinal trauma. It lays out when imaging is appropriate and when it is not. It discusses strength and weakness of available imaging modalities. Advanced techniques for spinal injury imaging will be explored. The review concludes with a review of imaging protocols adjusted to clinical circumstances.
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Mabray MC, Talbott JF, Whetstone WD, Dhall SS, Phillips DB, Pan JZ, Manley GT, Bresnahan JC, Beattie MS, Haefeli J, Ferguson AR. Multidimensional Analysis of Magnetic Resonance Imaging Predicts Early Impairment in Thoracic and Thoracolumbar Spinal Cord Injury. J Neurotrauma 2016; 33:954-62. [PMID: 26414451 PMCID: PMC4876497 DOI: 10.1089/neu.2015.4093] [Citation(s) in RCA: 31] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.9] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/11/2022] Open
Abstract
Literature examining magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) in acute spinal cord injury (SCI) has focused on cervical SCI. Reproducible systems have been developed for MRI-based grading; however, it is unclear how they apply to thoracic SCI. Our hypothesis is that MRI measures will group as coherent multivariate principal component (PC) ensembles, and that distinct PCs and individual variables will show discriminant validity for predicting early impairment in thoracic SCI. We undertook a retrospective cohort study of 25 patients with acute thoracic SCI who underwent MRI on admission and had American Spinal Injury Association Impairment Scale (AIS) assessment at hospital discharge. Imaging variables of axial grade, sagittal grade, length of injury, thoracolumbar injury classification system (TLICS), maximum canal compromise (MCC), and maximum spinal cord compression (MSCC) were collected. We performed an analytical workflow to detect multivariate PC patterns followed by explicit hypothesis testing to predict AIS at discharge. All imaging variables loaded positively on PC1 (64.3% of variance), which was highly related to AIS at discharge. MCC, MSCC, and TLICS also loaded positively on PC2 (22.7% of variance), while variables concerning cord signal abnormality loaded negatively on PC2. PC2 was highly related to the patient undergoing surgical decompression. Variables of signal abnormality were all negatively correlated with AIS at discharge with the highest level of correlation for axial grade as assessed with the Brain and Spinal Injury Center (BASIC) score. A multiple variable model identified BASIC as the only statistically significant predictor of AIS at discharge, signifying that BASIC best captured the variance in AIS within our study population. Our study provides evidence of convergent validity, construct validity, and clinical predictive validity for the sampled MRI measures of SCI when applied in acute thoracic and thoracolumbar SCI.
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Affiliation(s)
- Marc C. Mabray
- Department of Radiology and Biomedical Imaging, University of California San Francisco and San Francisco General Hospital, San Francisco, California
| | - Jason F. Talbott
- Department of Radiology and Biomedical Imaging, University of California San Francisco and San Francisco General Hospital, San Francisco, California
- Brain and Spinal Injury Center, San Francisco General Hospital, San Francisco, California
| | - William D. Whetstone
- Department of Emergency Medicine, University of California San Francisco and San Francisco General Hospital, San Francisco, California
- Brain and Spinal Injury Center, San Francisco General Hospital, San Francisco, California
| | - Sanjay S. Dhall
- Department of Neurological Surgery, University of California San Francisco and San Francisco General Hospital, San Francisco, California
- Brain and Spinal Injury Center, San Francisco General Hospital, San Francisco, California
| | - David B. Phillips
- Department of Neurological Surgery, University of California San Francisco and San Francisco General Hospital, San Francisco, California
- Brain and Spinal Injury Center, San Francisco General Hospital, San Francisco, California
| | - Jonathan Z. Pan
- Department of Anesthesia and Perioperative Care, University of California San Francisco and San Francisco General Hospital, San Francisco, California
- Brain and Spinal Injury Center, San Francisco General Hospital, San Francisco, California
| | - Geoffrey T. Manley
- Department of Neurological Surgery, University of California San Francisco and San Francisco General Hospital, San Francisco, California
- Brain and Spinal Injury Center, San Francisco General Hospital, San Francisco, California
| | - Jacqueline C. Bresnahan
- Department of Neurological Surgery, University of California San Francisco and San Francisco General Hospital, San Francisco, California
- Brain and Spinal Injury Center, San Francisco General Hospital, San Francisco, California
| | - Michael S. Beattie
- Department of Neurological Surgery, University of California San Francisco and San Francisco General Hospital, San Francisco, California
- Brain and Spinal Injury Center, San Francisco General Hospital, San Francisco, California
| | - Jenny Haefeli
- Department of Neurological Surgery, University of California San Francisco and San Francisco General Hospital, San Francisco, California
- Brain and Spinal Injury Center, San Francisco General Hospital, San Francisco, California
| | - Adam R. Ferguson
- Department of Neurological Surgery, University of California San Francisco and San Francisco General Hospital, San Francisco, California
- Brain and Spinal Injury Center, San Francisco General Hospital, San Francisco, California
- San Francisco Veteran's Affairs Medical Center, San Francisco, California
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Will the Real SCIWORA Please Stand Up? Exploring Clinicoradiologic Mismatch in Closed Spinal Cord Injuries. AJR Am J Roentgenol 2015; 205:853-60. [PMID: 26397336 DOI: 10.2214/ajr.14.13374] [Citation(s) in RCA: 20] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/18/2022]
Abstract
OBJECTIVE This article aims to familiarize radiologists with the terms used to describe clinicoradiologic mismatch in blunt spinal cord injuries, and also assesses MRI findings and their prognostic value for both pediatric and adult patients. CONCLUSION Knowledge of the lexicon of spinal cord injury without radiographic abnormality, the spectrum of MRI findings, and imaging predictors of outcome can help render a precise imaging diagnosis and can provide evidence-based prognostic information.
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Talbott JF, Whetstone WD, Readdy WJ, Ferguson AR, Bresnahan JC, Saigal R, Hawryluk GWJ, Beattie MS, Mabray MC, Pan JZ, Manley GT, Dhall SS. The Brain and Spinal Injury Center score: a novel, simple, and reproducible method for assessing the severity of acute cervical spinal cord injury with axial T2-weighted MRI findings. J Neurosurg Spine 2015; 23:495-504. [DOI: 10.3171/2015.1.spine141033] [Citation(s) in RCA: 102] [Impact Index Per Article: 11.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/06/2022]
Abstract
OBJECT
Previous studies that have evaluated the prognostic value of abnormal changes in signals on T2-weighted MRI scans of an injured spinal cord have focused on the longitudinal extent of this signal abnormality in the sagittal plane. Although the transverse extent of injury and the degree of spared spinal cord white matter have been shown to be important for predicting outcomes in preclinical animal models of spinal cord injury (SCI), surprisingly little is known about the prognostic value of altered T2 relaxivity in humans in the axial plane.
METHODS
The authors undertook a retrospective chart review of 60 patients who met the inclusion criteria of this study and presented to the authors’ Level I trauma center with an acute blunt traumatic cervical SCI. Within 48 hours of admission, all patients underwent MRI examination, which included axial and sagittal T2 images. Neurological symptoms, evaluated with the grades according to the American Spinal Injury Association (ASIA) Impairment Scale (AIS), at the time of admission and at hospital discharge were correlated with MRI findings. Five distinct patterns of intramedullary spinal cord T2 signal abnormality were defined in the axial plane at the injury epicenter. These patterns were assigned ordinal values ranging from 0 to 4, referred to as the Brain and Spinal Injury Center (BASIC) scores, which encompassed the spectrum of SCI severity.
RESULTS
The BASIC score strongly correlated with neurological symptoms at the time of both hospital admission and discharge. It also distinguished patients initially presenting with complete injury who improved by at least one AIS grade by the time of discharge from those whose injury did not improve. The authors’ proposed score was rapid to apply and showed excellent interrater reliability.
CONCLUSIONS
The authors describe a novel 5-point ordinal MRI score for classifying acute SCIs on the basis of axial T2-weighted imaging. The proposed BASIC score stratifies the SCIs according to the extent of transverse T2 signal abnormality during the acute phase of the injury. The new score improves on current MRI-based prognostic descriptions for SCI by reflecting functionally and anatomically significant patterns of intramedullary T2 signal abnormality in the axial plane.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jason F. Talbott
- Departments of 1Radiology and Biomedical Imaging,
- 4Brain and Spinal Injury Center, San Francisco General Hospital, San Francisco, California
| | | | | | - Adam R. Ferguson
- 3Neurological Surgery, and
- 4Brain and Spinal Injury Center, San Francisco General Hospital, San Francisco, California
| | - Jacqueline C. Bresnahan
- 3Neurological Surgery, and
- 4Brain and Spinal Injury Center, San Francisco General Hospital, San Francisco, California
| | - Rajiv Saigal
- 3Neurological Surgery, and
- 4Brain and Spinal Injury Center, San Francisco General Hospital, San Francisco, California
| | - Gregory W. J. Hawryluk
- 3Neurological Surgery, and
- 4Brain and Spinal Injury Center, San Francisco General Hospital, San Francisco, California
| | - Michael S. Beattie
- 3Neurological Surgery, and
- 4Brain and Spinal Injury Center, San Francisco General Hospital, San Francisco, California
| | | | - Jonathan Z. Pan
- 4Brain and Spinal Injury Center, San Francisco General Hospital, San Francisco, California
- 5Anesthesia and Perioperative Care, University of California; and
| | - Geoffrey T. Manley
- 3Neurological Surgery, and
- 4Brain and Spinal Injury Center, San Francisco General Hospital, San Francisco, California
| | - Sanjay S. Dhall
- 3Neurological Surgery, and
- 4Brain and Spinal Injury Center, San Francisco General Hospital, San Francisco, California
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Krishna V, Andrews H, Varma A, Mintzer J, Kindy MS, Guest J. Spinal cord injury: how can we improve the classification and quantification of its severity and prognosis? J Neurotrauma 2014; 31:215-27. [PMID: 23895105 DOI: 10.1089/neu.2013.2982] [Citation(s) in RCA: 39] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.9] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 01/21/2023] Open
Abstract
The preservation of functional neural tissue after spinal cord injury (SCI) is the basis for spontaneous neurological recovery. Some injured patients in the acute phase have more potential for recovery than others. This fact is problematic for the construction of clinical trials because enrollment of subjects with variable recovery potential makes it difficult to detect effects, requires large sample sizes, and risks Type II errors. In addition, the current methods to assess injury and recovery are non-quantitative and not sensitive. It is likely that therapeutic combinations will be necessary to cause substantially improved function after SCI, thus we need highly sensitive techniques to evaluate changes in motor, sensory, autonomic and other functions. We review several emerging neurophysiological techniques with high sensitivity. Quantitative methods to evaluate residual tissue sparing after severe acute SCI have not entered widespread clinical use. This reduces the ability to correlate structural preservation with clinical outcome following SCI resulting in enrollment of subjects with varying patterns of tissue preservation and injury into clinical trials. We propose that the inclusion of additional measures of injury severity, pattern, and individual genetic characteristics may enable stratification in clinical trials to make the testing of therapeutic interventions more effective and efficient. New imaging techniques to assess tract injury and demyelination and methods to quantify tissue injury, inflammatory markers, and neuroglial biochemical changes may improve the evaluation of injury severity, and the correlation with neurological outcome, and measure the effects of treatment more robustly than is currently possible. The ability to test such a multimodality approach will require a high degree of collaboration between clinical and research centers and government research support. When the most informative of these assessments is determined, it may be possible to identify patients with substantial recovery potential, improve selection criteria and conduct more efficient clinical trials.
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Affiliation(s)
- Vibhor Krishna
- 1 Department of Neurosciences, Medical University of South Carolina , Charleston, South Carolina
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Zhang JS, Huan Y. Multishot diffusion-weighted MR imaging features in acute trauma of spinal cord. Eur Radiol 2013; 24:685-92. [PMID: 24346823 DOI: 10.1007/s00330-013-3051-3] [Citation(s) in RCA: 16] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/08/2013] [Revised: 09/25/2013] [Accepted: 10/05/2013] [Indexed: 12/16/2022]
Abstract
OBJECTIVES To analyse diffusion-weighted MRI of acute spinal cord trauma and evaluate its diagnostic value. METHODS Conventional MRI and multishot, navigator-corrected DWI were performed in 20 patients with acute spinal cord trauma using 1.5-T MR within 72 h after the onset of trauma. RESULTS Twenty cases were classified into four categories according to the characteristics of DWI: (1) Oedema type: ten cases presented with variable hyperintense areas within the spinal cord. There were significant differences in the apparent diffusion coefficients (ADCs) between lesions and unaffected regions (t = -7.621, P < 0.01). ADC values of lesions were markedly lower than those of normal areas. (2) Mixed type: six cases showed heterogeneously hyperintense areas due to a mixture of haemorrhage and oedema. (3) Haemorrhage type: two cases showed lesions as marked hypointensity due to intramedullary haemorrhage. (4) Compressed type (by epidural haemorrhage): one of the two cases showed an area of mild hyperintensity in the markedly compressed cord due to epidural haematoma. CONCLUSIONS Muti-shot DWI of the spinal cord can help visualise and evaluate the injured spinal cord in the early stage, especially in distinguishing the cytotoxic oedema from vasogenic oedema. It can assist in detecting intramedullary haemorrhage and may have a potential role in the evaluation of compressed spinal cord. KEY POINTS • Multishot, navigator-corrected diffusion-weighted MRI is helpful when evaluating spinal cord injury (SCI). • Four types of SCI may be classified according to the DWI characteristics. • DWI differentiates cytotoxic from vasogenic oedema, thereby determining the centre of SCI. • DWI can assist in detecting intramedullary haemorrhage. • DWI can help evaluate the degree of compressed spinal cord.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jin Song Zhang
- Department of Radiology, Xijing Hospital, Fourth Military Medical University, No. 127 Changle xilu, Xi'an, 710032, People's Republic of China,
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