Eun Hae Park, Abstract Co-Author: Nothing to Disclose

Seok Hahn MD, Presenter: Nothing to Disclose

Young Han Lee MD, Abstract Co-Author: Nothing to Disclose

Sungjun Kim MD, Abstract Co-Author: Nothing to Disclose

Ho-Taek Song MD, Abstract Co-Author: Nothing to Disclose

Jin-Suck Suh MD, Abstract Co-Author: Nothing to Disclose

To evaluate the performance of diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) in the cervical spinal cord by comparing 2D ss-IMIV-DWEPI (interleaved multisection inner volume) and custom made 2D ss-DWEPI in a clinical population with focusing at lower cervical spinal cord .

From July to November 2013, total 21 patients who underwent cervical spinal MR with DTI were retrospectively enrolled (M:F= 7:14, mean age 45.5 years, range 24-76). All MRI examinations were performed using a 3.0 T with a phased-array spine coil including two different 2D reduced FOV DTI sequences: 2D ss-IMIV-DWEPI(iDTI) and 2D ss-DWEPI without interleaved(cDTI). For quantitative analysis, two musculoskeletal radiologists blinded to sequence measured fractional anisotropy (FA), and apparent diffusion coefficient (ADC) value throughout the whole cervical spinal cord (C1-T1). For qualitative analysis, the readers rated each image based on spinal cord distortion, dural margin delineation, depiction of intervertebral disc. Both quantitative and qualitative evaluations were analyzed as upper and lower segment. For quantitative analysis t-test was used and for qualitative analysis, Two-way analysis of variance(ANOVA) and t-test were performed.

FA were significantly higher and ADC value were significantly lower at iDTI than those of cDTI (0.679 versus 0.563, respectively for FA, 631 versus 1026, respectively for ADC value, P<0.0001), and this was consistent at lower segment of spinal cord. The reviewers rated iDTI superior in terms of all assessed characteristics. And the mean score of iDTI of lower segment was significantly higher compared with cDTI aswell as higher segment(<0.0001).

2D rFOV ss-IMIV-DWEPI can be used to acquire higher performance in terms of improving image quality even in lower segment of cervical spinal cord and is preferred to conventional 2D rFOV ss-DWEPI.

2D rFOV ss-IMIV-DWEPI can be used to acquire higher performance in terms of improving image quality even in lower segment of cervical spinal cord and is preferred to conventional 2D rFOV ss-DWEPI.

Park, E, Hahn, S, Lee, Y, Kim, S, Song, H, Suh, J, Diffusion Tensor Imaging Focusing on Lower Cervical Spinal Cord Uing 2D Reduced FOV Interleaved Multislice Single-Shot Diffusion-weighted Echo-Planar Imaging: Comparison with Conventional Single-Shot Diffusion-weighted Echo-Planar Imaging.  Radiological Society of North America 2014 Scientific Assembly and Annual Meeting, - ,Chicago IL. http://archive.rsna.org/2014/14019059.html