الفهرس | Only 14 pages are availabe for public view |
Abstract DTI provides useful information about the direction of fibers and the diffusion anisotropy properties of neural tissue and complements the information obtained by conventional MRI. White matter fiber tracking in the brain is being used to help diagnose various clinical conditions, but its exact application in spinal imaging is largely unexplored. In future, fiber tracking and DTI indices may help the surgeon to determine their surgical approach. Correlation between quantitative diffusion measures, such as FA and ADC, and acute or chronic injuries of the spinal cord may be useful to predict outcome and monitor the response to treatment The most important limitation of the technique is that it is not fully validated. Attempts to clinically validate this technique have been made in the past. Most of these efforts are based on comparisons of the tractographic images and known neuroanatomy. The technique is also quite operator dependant and FT still depends on a qualitative visual analysis by the radiologist and requires further development of the quantification and standardization methods. |