J Korean Soc Magn Reson Med.  2002 Dec;6(2):166-172.

Diffusion-Weighted MR Imaging of Spinal Cord Infarction

• Kim YJ
• Seo JJ
• Yim NY
• Chung WT
• Kim YH
• Park JG
• Jeong GW
• Kang HK

Abstract

PURPOSE: To evaluate the usefulness of diffusion-weighted imaging(DWI) and quantitative apparent diffusion coefficient (ADC) maps in the patients with spinal cord infarction.
MATERIALS AND METHODS
We studied 6 patients presented symptoms with spinal cord infarction, retrospectively(3 men and 3 women). We obtained multi-shot echo planar-based, DWI using 1.5T MR scanner at 5.4 mean days after the onset of ischemic symptoms. In six patients, signal intensity was acquired at conventional b value (1000s/mm2). The ADC value for the normal spinal cord and for infarcted lesions was measured from the trace ADC maps by using regions of interest positioned over the spinal cord. We analyzed signal intensity of lesion on MRI and DWI, and compared with ADC values in infarcted lesions and normal site.
RESULTS
T1-weighted MR image showed iso-signal intensity in four of six patients and low signal intensity in two of six. T2-weighted MR image demonstrated high signal intensity in all of six. All DWI were considered to be diagnostic. All of six depicted a bright signal intensity on DWI. ADC values of infarcted lesion were measured lower than that of normal spinal cord on ADC map. The differences in ADC values between infarcted and normal spinal cord were significantly different (p<0.05).
CONCLUSION
It is possible to obtain DWI and ADC map of the spinal cord and DWI may be useful in the early diagnosis and localization of lesion site in patients with spinal cord infarction.

Keyword

Spinal cord, infarction; MR, diffusion

MeSH Terms

Diffusion
Early Diagnosis
Humans
Infarction*
Magnetic Resonance Imaging*
Male
Spinal Cord*