1Department of Radiology, Washington University, St. Louis, Missouri.
2Department of Biostatistics, Washington University, St. Louis, Missouri.
J Neurotrauma. 2019 Aug 1;36(15):2308-2315. doi: 10.1089/neu.2018.6016. Epub 2019 Jan 11.
Neuroimaging plays an important role in assessing axonal pathology after traumatic spinal cord injury. However, coexisting inflammation confounds imaging assessment of the severity of axonal injury. Herein, we applied diffusion basis spectrum imaging (DBSI) to quantitatively differentiate and quantify underlying pathologies in traumatic spinal cord injury at 3 days post-injury. Results reveal that DBSI was capable of detecting and differentiating axonal injury, demyelination, and inflammation-associated edema and cell infiltration in contusion-injured spinal cords. DBSI was able to detect and quantify axonal loss in the presence of white matter tract swelling. The DBSI-defined apparent axonal volume correlated with the corresponding histological markers. DBSI-derived pathological metrics could serve as neuroimaging biomarkers to differentiate and quantify coexisting white matter pathologies in spinal cord injury, providing potential surrogate outcome measures to assess spinal cord injury progression and response to therapies.
神经影像学在评估创伤性脊髓损伤后的轴突病理学中起着重要作用。然而，并存的炎症会混淆对轴突损伤严重程度的影像学评估。在此，我们应用扩散基础谱成像（DBSI）定量区分和量化创伤性脊髓损伤后 3 天的潜在病理学。结果表明，DBSI 能够检测和区分挫伤性脊髓损伤中的轴突损伤、脱髓鞘和炎症相关的水肿和细胞浸润。DBSI 能够在白质束肿胀的情况下检测和量化轴突丢失。DBSI 定义的表观轴突体积与相应的组织学标志物相关。DBSI 衍生的病理指标可以作为神经影像学生物标志物来区分和量化脊髓损伤中的共存白质病变，为评估脊髓损伤进展和治疗反应提供潜在的替代终点。
