A Study On Magnetic Resonance Diffusion Tensor Imaging Of Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis

Objective:To analysis the characteristics of diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS).To investigate the relationship in DTI with clinical indicators and Traditional Chinese Medicine syndrome.Methods:We retrospectively analyzed 34 patients(case group), that fit the request, and 23 health people (control group). To gather the FA and ADC around both sides in cerebral peduncle,posterior limb of internal capsule and white matter under the precentral gyrus. Similarly, to gather the clinical indicators, included sex, age of onset,disease course, rate of disease progression, pyramidal tract score, clinical function score, level of diagnostics and TCM syndrome. After the data were collected,used SPSS18.0 to record the data and to analyze it.Results:34 cases were collected and grouped them according to the level of diagnostics,10 cases of possible group,11 cases of suspected group,13 cases of diagnosed group.8 cases in possible group,9 cases in suspected group diagnosed with ALS in the end and the remaining four cases were lost. Compared with the control group, ADC of suspected group and diagnosed group increased(P<0.05), and FA of them decreased (P<0.05) on the level of cerebral peduncle;There are corresponding changes in ADC and FA in possible group, suspected group, diagnosed group on the level of posterior limb of internal capsule (P<0.05).In pairwise comparison between groups of case group,the difference of FA was statistically significant (P<0.05), on the level of cerebral peduncle and posterior limb of internal capsule. And FA was more significant with the level of diagnostics increased. No significant correlation of ADC and FA with age of onset, disease course, rate of disease progression, pyramidal tract score,clinical function score on the level of posterior limb of internal capsule (P>0.05).FA value was negatively correlated with the level of diagnostics (P<0.05). The difference of ADC and FA in TCM syndrome was not statistically significant on the level of posterior limb of internal capsule (P>0.05).Conclusion:Posterior limb of internal capsule is the ideal region to discover the early lesion of UMN. FA can reflect the progress of the disease. DTI can help early diagnosis and condition assessment.