Quantitative Assessment of the Cervical Spinal Cord Damage in Neuromyelitis Optica Using Diffusion Tensor Imaging at 3T

Wenshu Qian¹, Henry Mak¹, Queenie Chan², Koon Ho Chan³, Mina Kim¹

Neuromyelitis optica (NMO) is an inflammatory and demyelinating disease which consists of optic neuritis and myelitis. Since it usually involves acute and severe attacks, early diagnosis is of vital importance for proper treatment. However, current diagnostic imaging techniques are not sensitive to degenerative changes in early stage of NMO. In this study, we aimed to investigate the normal appearing cervical spinal cord damage in patients with NMO using diffusion tensor imaging (DTI). Our results show DTI-derived metrics can sensitively assess the microstructural abnormalities, suggesting DTI may have great potential as a useful diagnostic tool in detecting early stage of NMO.