Seboco Orapeleng, Gebremariam Fekade, Joubert Gina
Department of Clinical Imaging Science, Faculty of Health Sciences, University of the Free State, Bloemfontein, South Africa.
Department of Biostatistics, Faculty of Health Sciences, University of the Free State, Bloemfontein, South Africa.
SA J Radiol. 2021 Apr 1;25(1):2038. doi: 10.4102/sajr.v25i1.2038. eCollection 2021.
The introduction of the Subaxial Cervical Spine Injury Classification system has created the need for a holistic imaging approach that encompasses both functional (neurological) and morphological information.
This study aimed to determine if there was a correlation between the blunt cervical spinal cord injury diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) fraction anisotropy (FA) value and the American Spine Injury Association (ASIA) impairment scale motor score.
Diffusion tensor imaging was performed on 26 patients with blunt cervical spine injury (all men with a median age of 46 years) admitted to the Pelonomi Tertiary Hospital spinal unit. Imaging was performed using the 1.5T Siemens Magnetom Aera machine's built-in spine DTI protocol. Sagittal FA values were acquired at four different cervical spine regions (medulla oblongata, above the injury site, at the injury site and below the injury site).
Eight of the 26 patients had complete neurological fallout. Of the participants, 30% had injuries at the C4/C5 level, whilst injuries involving segments below and above C4/C5 affected 15% and 55% of participants, respectively. Injury site FA values (median 0.30) were significantly lower ( < 0.001) than the above injury site FA (median 0.46, = 0.26) and below injury site FA (median 0.42 and = 0.019). A significant correlation was noted between the injury site FA values and the ASIA impairment scale motor scores ( = 0.001, = 0.87).
FA value showed excellent correlation with the ASIA impairment scale motor scores.
下颈椎损伤分类系统的引入使得需要一种全面的成像方法，该方法应包含功能（神经学）和形态学信息。
本研究旨在确定钝性颈椎脊髓损伤弥散张量成像（DTI）分数各向异性（FA）值与美国脊髓损伤协会（ASIA）损伤量表运动评分之间是否存在相关性。
对入住佩洛诺米三级医院脊柱科的26例钝性颈椎损伤患者（均为男性，中位年龄46岁）进行弥散张量成像。使用1.5T西门子Magnetom Aera机器内置的脊柱DTI协议进行成像。在四个不同的颈椎区域（延髓、损伤部位上方、损伤部位和损伤部位下方）获取矢状面FA值。
26例患者中有8例出现完全性神经功能丧失。在参与者中，30%的患者损伤位于C4/C5水平，而涉及C4/C5以下和以上节段的损伤分别影响15%和55%的参与者。损伤部位的FA值（中位数0.30）显著低于损伤部位上方的FA值（中位数0.46，P<0.001）和损伤部位下方的FA值（中位数0.42，P = 0.019）。损伤部位的FA值与ASIA损伤量表运动评分之间存在显著相关性（P = 0.001，r = 0.87）。
FA值与ASIA损伤量表运动评分显示出极好的相关性。
