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Abstract #1814

Can DTI Predict the MRI Level of Injury in Pediatric Spinal Cord Injury Subjects?

Sona Saksena1, John Gaughan2, Devon M Middleton3, Laura Krisa4, MJ Mulcahey4, Chris Conklin1, Mahdi Alizadeh5, Scott H Faro3, and Feroze B Mohamed1

1Radiology, Thomas Jefferson University, Philadelphia, PA, United States, 2Biostatistics Consulting Cente, Temple University School of Medicine, Philadelphia, PA, United States, 3Radiology, Temple University, Philadelphia, PA, United States, 4Occupational Therapy, Thomas Jefferson University, Philadelphia, PA, United States, 5Bioengineering, Temple University, Philadelphia, PA, United States

The purpose of this study was to determine whether DTI parameters can be used to predict the level of injury as observed on conventional MRI data in pediatric spinal cord injury (SCI) subjects and to estimate the cut points for the DTI parameters which best discriminates the abnormal MRI from normal appearing MRI regions. Ten subjects with chronic SCI underwent repeat axial DTI scans based on inner field of view sequence. FA, MD, AD and RD were calculated by using ROIs drawn on the whole cord along the entire spinal cord for both scans. FA, MD, RD were significant predictors of the MRI level of injury. The cut points for FA, MD, AD and RD discriminated the abnormal MRI from normal appearing MRI regions in these subjects. DTI has the potential to serve as a surrogate for an abnormal MRI level corresponding to a region of SCI in instances where the MRI scans are unavailable, unreliable or there is an equivocal clinical exam.

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