The purpose of this study was to visualize the lumbar nerve roots and to measure their FA values in healthy volunteers and in patients with neurological symptom of leg by using TSE-DTI. Tractography of the patients with symptomatic side of lumbar nerve roots indicated abnormalities such as narrowing, deformation, and disruption. The FA values of the symptomatic side of lumbar nerve roots were significantly lower than those of the asymptomatic side. TSE-DTI might more accurately evaluate compressed lumbar nerve roots compared to conventional EPI-DTI. Additionally, tractography of TSE-DTI enables visualization of abnormal nerve tracts and has a lower geometric distortion for diagnosing lumbar nerve compression than EPI-DTI.
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