DTI of chronic spinal cord injury in children without MRI abnormalities (SCIWOMR) and with pathology on MRI and comparison to severity of motor impairment.

Authors

• Scott H Faro
• Sona Saksena
• Laura Krisa
• Devon M Middleton
• Mahdi Alizadeh
• Jürgen Finsterbusch
• Adam E Flanders
• Kiran Talekar
• M J Mulcahey
• Feroze B Mohamed

Publication/Presentation Date

5-1-2022

Abstract

STUDY DESIGN: This investigation was a cohort study that included: 36 typically developing (TD) children and 19 children with spinal cord lesions who underwent spinal cord MRI.

OBJECTIVES: To investigate diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) cervical and thoracic spinal cord changes in pediatric patients that have clinically traumatic and non-traumatic spinal cord injury (SCI) without MR (SCIWOMR) abnormalities.

SETTING: Thomas Jefferson University, Temple University, Shriners Hospitals for Children all in Philadelphia, USA.

METHODS: 36 TD children and 19 children with spinal cord lesions that represent either a chronic traumatic acquired SCI or chronic non-traumatic SCI (≥6 months post injury), age range, 6-16 years who underwent cervical and thoracic spinal cord MRI in 2014-2017. Additionally DTI was correlated to clinical American Spinal Injury Association Impairment Scale (AIS).

RESULTS: Both SCIWOMR and MRI positive (+) groups showed abnormal FA and RD DTI values in the adjacent MRI-normal appearing segments of cephalad and caudal spinal cord compared to TD. The FA values demonstrated perilesional abnormal DTI findings in the middle and proximal segments of the cephalad and caudal cord in the SCIWOMR AIS A/B group compared to SCIWOMR AIS C/D group.

CONCLUSIONS: We found DTI changes in children with SCIWOMR with different causes of spinal lesions. We also investigated the relationship between DTI and clinical AIS scores. This study further examined the potential diagnostic value of DTI and should be translatable to adults with spinal cord lesions.

Volume

60

Issue

5

First Page

457

Last Page

464

ISSN

1476-5624

Published In/Presented At

Faro, S. H., Saksena, S., Krisa, L., Middleton, D. M., Alizadeh, M., Finsterbusch, J., Flanders, A. E., Talekar, K., Mulcahey, M. J., & Mohamed, F. B. (2022). DTI of chronic spinal cord injury in children without MRI abnormalities (SCIWOMR) and with pathology on MRI and comparison to severity of motor impairment. Spinal cord, 60(5), 457–464. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41393-022-00770-5

Disciplines

Business Administration, Management, and Operations | Health and Medical Administration | Management Sciences and Quantitative Methods

PubMedID

35379960

Department(s)

Administration and Leadership

Document Type

Article