Title A diffusion tensor imaging group study of the spinal cord in multiple sclerosis patients with and without $T_{2}$ spinal cord lesions Author van Hecke, Wim Nagels, Guy Emonds, Griet Leemans, Alexander Sijbers, Jan Van Goethem, Johan Parizel, Paul M. Faculty/Department Faculty of Sciences. Physics Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences Faculty of Pharmaceutical, Biomedical and Veterinary Sciences . Biomedical Sciences Publication type article Publication 2009 Chicago, Ill. , 2009 Subject Physics Human medicine Source (journal) Journal of magnetic resonance imaging. - Chicago, Ill. Volume/pages 30(2009) :1 , p. 25-34 ISSN 1053-1807 ISI 000267452600004 Carrier E Target language English (eng) Full text (Publishers DOI) Affiliation University of Antwerp Abstract Purpose To examine the T2-normal appearing spinal cord of patients with multiple sclerosis (MS) using diffusion tensor imaging. Materials and Methods Diffusion tensor images of the spinal cord were acquired from 21 healthy subjects, 11 MS patients with spinal cord lesions, and 10 MS patients without spinal cord lesions on the T2-weighted MR images. Different diffusion measures were evaluated using both a region of interest (ROI) -based and a diffusion tensor tractography-based segmentation approach. Results It was observed that the FA, the transverse diffusivity , and the ratio of the longitudinal and transverse diffusivities (/ ) were significantly lower in the spinal cord of MS patients with spinal cord lesions compared with the control subjects using both the ROI method (P = 0.014, P = 0.028, and P = 0.039, respectively) and the tractography-based approach (P = 0.006, P = 0.037, and P = 0.012, respectively). For both image analysis methods, the FA and the / values were significantly different between the control group and the MS patient group without T2 spinal cord lesions (P = 0.013). Conclusion Our results suggest that the spinal cord may still be affected by MS, even when lesions are not detected on a conventional MR scan. In addition, we demonstrated that diffusion tensor tractography is a robust tool to analyze the spinal cord of MS patients E-info https://repository.uantwerpen.be/docman/iruaauth/16f355/a2a8e67d246.pdf http://gateway.webofknowledge.com/gateway/Gateway.cgi?GWVersion=2&SrcApp=PARTNER_APP&SrcAuth=LinksAMR&KeyUT=WOS:000267452600004&DestLinkType=RelatedRecords&DestApp=ALL_WOS&UsrCustomerID=ef845e08c439e550330acc77c7d2d848 http://gateway.webofknowledge.com/gateway/Gateway.cgi?GWVersion=2&SrcApp=PARTNER_APP&SrcAuth=LinksAMR&KeyUT=WOS:000267452600004&DestLinkType=FullRecord&DestApp=ALL_WOS&UsrCustomerID=ef845e08c439e550330acc77c7d2d848 http://gateway.webofknowledge.com/gateway/Gateway.cgi?GWVersion=2&SrcApp=PARTNER_APP&SrcAuth=LinksAMR&KeyUT=WOS:000267452600004&DestLinkType=CitingArticles&DestApp=ALL_WOS&UsrCustomerID=ef845e08c439e550330acc77c7d2d848 Handle