Introduction

Introduction • Diffusion Tensor Imaging (DTI) • Effective technique in magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) for measuring anisotropic (directional) water diffusion in-vivo • Can reveal useful information about tissue microstructure, particularly highly-anisotropic structures, e.g. white matter

What do we measure?? • Fractional Anisotropy (FA) • Tells you how anisotropic (in a straight line) water movement is Completely straight (FA~1) Mostly straight (FA~0.5) All directions (FA~0)

Diffusion in white matter • Myelinated axons in white matter restrict the direction of water diffusion

Diffusion in White Matter Intact Axons

Diffusion in White Matter Acute Injury WallerianDegneration

Diffusion in White Matter So, we think that a person with a spinal cord injury will have LOWER FA! Loss of Anisotropic Diffusion

How do we investigate? • Let’s group subjects into two categories: • Patients – subjects who have spinal cord injuries • Controls – subjects who have no spinal cord injuries • Try scanning one patient with a spinal cord injury, and one control subject with no injury

Images Control Patient

Results FA by Injury Category Fractional Anisotropy (FA) Injury Category

Images Injury Level Control Patient

Spine T1 T12

Results FA vs. Spine Level Fractional Anisotropy (FA) Spine Level

Results FA is lower in the injured patient than all controls! FA vs. Spine Level Fractional Anisotropy (FA) Injury level Spine Level

Results We see a big decrease after the injury level in both patients! FA vs. Spine Level The more data we collect, the more certain we are about our results! Fractional Anisotropy (FA) Injury level Spine Level

Introduction

Introduction

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Introduction to introduction to introduction to … Optimization

INTRODUCTION/ INTRODUCTION

Introduction

INTRODUCTION

Introduction

Introduction