Srinivas Peddi, Presenter: Nothing to Disclose

James Michael Provenzale MD, Abstract Co-Author: Nothing to Disclose

Srinivasan Mukundan MD, PhD, Abstract Co-Author: Nothing to Disclose

David Delong PhD, Abstract Co-Author: Nothing to Disclose

Maria Escolar, Abstract Co-Author: Nothing to Disclose

Joanne Kurtzberg MD, Abstract Co-Author: Nothing to Disclose

Luxia Liang MD, PhD, Abstract Co-Author: Nothing to Disclose

et al, Abstract Co-Author: Nothing to Disclose

To correlate findings on conventional MR (MR) imaging and diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) for evaluation of stem cell transplantation for Krabbe disease in infants.

A retrospective analysis of 19 MR studies in 9 Krabbe infants (5 girls) was performed by 2 neuroradiologists who were blinded to clinical status. Readers assessed disease extent using the established Loes severity score (0 to 32 points). DTI was performed using spin echo, echo planar technique, TR of 12,000 ms, TE of 101 ms, b value of 1,000 s/mm2 and encoding in 6 directions on a 1.5T scanner. A third, blinded reader measured fractional anisotropy (FA) values in 5 regions bilaterally (frontal white matter [WM], genu of corpus callosum [CC], splenium of CC, posterior limb of internal capsule [IC], and optic radiations). For each infant, FA values were expressed as a ratio of FA values in patients to FA values in 5 age-matched normal infants. FA values were correlated with Loes scores using 5 comparisons: (1) FA values in each region compared with Loes score for that region, (2) Loes score of entire CC vs. average FA of genu and splenium, (3) Loes score of frontal WM vs. FA of frontal WM tracts (4) Loes score of entire pyramidal system vs. FA of internal capsule, and (5) Loes score of entire brain vs. average FA of frontal WM, genu of CC, splenium of CC, IC, and optic radiations.

Strong correlations were seen for each comparison. Pearson correlation coefficients and p values were as follows for the comparisons: (1) ) r =0.38 (p 0.0001) for FA values in each region vs. Loes score for that region (2) r = 0.621 (p 0.004) for Loes score of CC vs. average FA of genu and splenium, (3) r = 0.48 (p 0.03) for Loes score of frontal WM vs. FA of frontal WM tracts (4) r = 0.618 (p 0.004) for Loes score of entire pyramidal system vs. FA of internal capsule, and (5) r = 0.81 (p 0.00002) for Loes score of entire brain vs. average FA of all regions.

Our findings suggest that DTI findings correlate well with conventional MR imaging findings. However, DTI measurements have the advantage of providing a quantitative and highly reproducible measure of WM integrity.

Peddi, S, Provenzale, J, Mukundan, S, Delong, D, Escolar, M, Kurtzberg, J, Liang, L, et al, , Comparison of Diffusion Tensor MR versus Conventional Spin-Echo MR Imaging in Evaluating Krabbe Disease.  Radiological Society of North America 2005 Scientific Assembly and Annual Meeting, November 27 - December 2, 2005 ,Chicago IL. http://archive.rsna.org/2005/4406357.html