Quantitative Evaluation of Compressed L4-5 and S1 Nerve Roots of Lumbar Disc Herniation Patients by Diffusion Tensor Imaging-Fiber Tractography.

Quantitative Evaluation of Compressed L4-5 and S1 Nerve Roots of Lumbar Disc Herniation Patients by Diffusion Tensor Imaging-Fiber Tractography.

World Neurosurg. 2018 Mar 26;:

Authors: He A, Wang WZ, Qiao PF, Qiao GY, Cheng H, Feng PY

Abstract
OBJECTIVE: We sought to delineate the fractional anisotropy (FA) and apparent diffusion coefficient (ADC) values of compressed nerve roots in lumbar disc herniation patients by diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) and fiber bundle tracing and further investigated the relationship between FA or ADC values and the swiss spinal stenosis questionnaire (SSSQ) scores and the visual analog scale (VAS) scores.
METHODS: Twenty patients with lumbar disc herniation and 20 age and sex-matched healthy volunteers were assessed using the SSSQ and VAS. All subjects underwent conventional sagittal T1WI and T2WI and axial T2WI and DTI-fiber tractography.
RESULTS: Thirty-one nerve roots in 20 lumbar disc herniation patients were involved including 9/31 L4 nerve roots, 15/31L5 nerve roots and 7/31 S1 nerve roots. The mean SSSQ scores of the patients were 53.55±11.91% and the mean VAS scores were 5.96±1.64. The FA values of lumbar nerve roots were 0.332±0.014 in healthy volunteers. The FA values of the compressed lumbar nerve roots were 0.251±0.022 and significantly lower than the contralateral non-compressed nerve roots and those of the lumbar nerve roots of healthy volunteers. Furthermore, the ADC values of lumbar nerve roots were 1.763±0.075 in healthy volunteers. The ADC values of the compressed lumbar nerve roots were 2.090±0.078 and significantly higher than the contralateral non-compressed nerve roots and those of the lumbar nerve roots of healthy volunteers.
CONCLUSION: Fiber tractography is capable of delineating microstructural changes of lumbosacral nerve roots and radiculopathy in lumbar disc herniation is associated with significant changes in FA and ADC values.

PMID: 29597019 [PubMed - as supplied by publisher]

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