Article Figures & Data
Figures
- FIG 1.
Schematic representation of the fDWI/DDE MR imaging technique for spinal cord injury. Traumatic injury to the spinal cord (A) results in microscopic damage to axons, illustrated here as beading and end-bulbs that reflect the underlying acute pathology (B). A prominent edema response (light blue) is typical surrounding the injury site. Traditional DWI/DTI derives measures reflecting the bulk sum of all features. With fDWI/DDE, a high-strength diffusion-weighting perpendicular to the spinal cord suppresses extracellular edema (and CSF) to estimate tissue-specific diffusivity metrics less confounded by edema.
- FIG 2.
fADC‖ and AD maps for the healthy spinal cord. Single-subject fADC‖ (A) and AD maps (B) at C4 for a healthy individual on a 3T system. Comparison of the mean white matter fADC‖ or AD values (C) and SNR (D).
- FIG 3.
fADC‖ and AD maps for an individual (subject 3) with an acute spinal cord injury. A T2-weighted image for an individual with an acute spinal cord injury on a 1.5T system. Single slices above, at, and below the injury site (as labeled in the T2 image) for fADC‖ and AD maps. Ax GRE indicates axial gradient recalled-echo.
- FIG 4.
fADC‖ and AD compared at each individual section for acute spinal cord injury (n = 8). There is a large, unidirectional decrease in fADC‖ at the injury site compared with a lesser, multidirectional decrease in AD values. The asterisk indicates significance compared with the first section (P < .05).
- FIG 5.
Correlations of fADC‖ and AD at each individual section for the intact spinal cord and acute spinal cord injury. Correlations are significant for the intact spinal cord; however, a lower correlation and nonrandom residuals for the acute SCI setting indicate that fADC‖ and AD do not have a simple linear relationship, suggesting that they provide differing information.
