Utility of Advanced DWI in the Detection of Spinal Cord Microstructural Alterations and Assessment of Neurologic Function in Cervical Spondylotic Myelopathy Patients

Diffusion-weighted imaging (DWI) can quantify the microstructural changes in the spinal cord. It might be a substitute for T2 increased signal intensity (ISI) for cervical spondylotic myelopathy (CSM) evaluation and prognosis.The purpose of the study is to investigate the relationship between DWI metrics and neurologic function of patients with CSM.Retrospective.Forty-eight patients with CSM (18.8% females) and 36 healthy controls (HCs, 25.0% females).3 T; spin-echo echo-planar imaging-DWI; turbo spin-echo T1/T2; multi-echo gradient echo T2*.For patients, conventional MRI indicators (presence and grades of T2 ISI), DWI indicators (neurite orientation dispersion and density imaging [NODDI]-derived isotropic volume fraction [ISOVF], intracellular volume fraction, and orientation dispersion index [ODI], diffusion tensor imaging [DTI]-derived fractional anisotropy [FA] and mean diffusivity [MD], and diffusion kurtosis imaging [DKI]-derived FA, MD, and mean kurtosis), clinical conditions, and modified Japanese Orthopaedic Association (mJOA) were recorded before the surgery. Neurologic function improvement was measured by the 3-month follow-up recovery rate (RR). For HCs, DWI, and mJOA were measured as baseline comparison.Continuous (categorical) variables were compared between patients and HCs using Student's t-tests or Mann-Whitney U tests (chi-square or Fisher exact tests). The relationships between DWI metrics/conventional MRI findings, and the pre-operative mJOA/RR were assessed using correlation and multivariate analysis. P < 0.05 was considered statistically significant.Among patients, grades of T2 ISI were not correlated with pre-surgical mJOA/RR (P = 0.717 and 0.175, respectively). NODDI ODI correlated with pre-operative mJOA (r = -0.31). DTI FA, DKI FA, and NODDI ISOVF were correlated with the recovery rate (r = 0.31, 0.41, and -0.34, respectively). In multivariate analysis, NODDI ODI (DTI FA, DKI FA, NODDI ISOVF) significantly contributed to the pre-operative mJOA (RR) after adjusting for age.DTI FA, DKI FA, and NODDI ISOVF are predictors for prognosis in patients with CSM. NODDI ODI can be used to evaluate CSM severity.3 TECHNICAL EFFICACY STAGE: 5.