| Objection: To investigate the role of diffusion kurtosis imaging metrics in quantitative analysis of cervical spinal cord injury,assessment of clinical disability and monitoring efficacy in cervical spinal cord injury of multiple sclerosis patients.Method: Forty-eight patients with multiple sclerosis were selected,the average age was 45.21±12.77 years old,and the average disease duration was 2.9 years.According to the conventional cervical MRI,the lesions were divided into: group A-discovered lesions,group B-no lesions.Thirty healthy adults matched by sex and age were selected as the control group,with an average age of 44.17±12.69 years.All healthy volunteers and patients with multiple sclerosis underwent routine magnetic resonance imaging and diffusion kurtosis imaging.After image processing and data measurement,MK,MD and FA values of cervical spinal cord lesions and gray and white matter were obtained and compared with one-way ANOVA.The degree of disability was quantified by EDSS before and after treatment.Pearson correlation coefficient analysis was used to evaluate the correlation between MK,MD and FA values and disability degree.Results: 1.There was no significant difference in age and sex between patients and control group(p>0.05);2.There were significant differences in MK,MD and FA values between patients and control group(p<0.05);3.There were significant differences in MK,MD and FA values between patients with cervical spinal cord lesions detected by T2 WI and patients without cervical spinal lesions(p<0.05);4.There was no significant difference in MK value and white matter between patients with cervical spinal cord lesions detected by T2 WI and patients without cervical spinal cord lesions(p<0.05).The FA value had statistical significance compared with the control group(p<0.05).5.There were significant differences in MK,MD and FA values between patients with cervical spinal cord lesions after treatment(p<0.05),and no significant differences in gray matter MK and white matter FA values(p<0.05);6.In patients group,EDSS scores were correlated with MK values(r=-0.634,-0.630,p<0.05),and EDSS scores after treatment were still correlated with MK values(r=-0.645,-0.377,p<0.05).Conclusion:(1)In MS patients whose lesions were not detected by routine MRI,DKI parameters can detect and quantitatively evaluate the changes of cervical spinal cord micro-pathological structure at an early stage;(2)MK values are more sensitive than DTI parameters to detect the lesions of MS cervical spinal cord gray matter;(3)MK values can quantitatively evaluate the degree of disability in MS patients,make treatment decisions and evaluate the therapeutic effect. |
