• Denis Ducreux, Pierre Fillard, David Facon, Augustin Ozanne, Jean-François Lepeintre, Jerome Renoux, Marc Tadié, and Pierre Lasjaunias.
• Department of Neuroradiology, CHU de Bicêtre, Paris XI University, 78 rue du Général Leclerc, 94270 Le Kremlin-Bicêtre, France. denis.ducreux@bct.ap-hop-paris.fr
• Neuroimaging Clin. N. Am. 2007 Feb 1; 17 (1): 137-47.

AbstractDiffusion-weighted imaging and fractional anisotropy may be more sensitive than other conventional magnetic resonance imaging techniques to detect, characterize, and map the extent of spinal cord lesions. Fiber tracking offers the possibility of visualizing the integrity of white matter tracts surrounding some lesions, and this information may help in formulating a differential diagnosis and in planning biopsies or resection. Fractional anisotropy measurements may also play a role in predicting the outcome of patients who have spinal cord lesions. In this article, we address several conditions in which diffusion-weighted imaging and fiber tracking is known to be useful and speculate on others in which we believe these techniques will be useful in the near future.

16 keywords...

hide…