Judy R. James1, Asif A. Khan2, David
P. Gordy1, Majid A. Khan1, Juebin Huang2,
Alexander P. Auchus2,3, Razvan Buciuc1,2
1Radiology, University of
Mississippi Medical Center, Jackson, MS, United States; 2Neurology,
University of Mississippi Medical Center, Jackson, MS, United States; 3Neurology,
G.V. (Sonny) Montgomery VA Medical Center, Jackson, MS, United States
Diffusion Tensor imaging (DTI), though a well known MR technique to assess degeneration of fiber tracts in stroke affected brains; has received very little attention for its potential clinical significance in conjunction with the neurological scores and deficits. Purpose of this study was to determine if DTI can predict the functional outcome in stroke patients by correlating the degree of motor tract involvement. Our results show that fiber loss in capsular stroke patients has a significant positive correlation with loss in motor functions and less correlation with cognitive functions. DTI and its positive correlation to clinical NIHSS scores can help clinicians in predicting short and /or long term neurological deficits in stroke affected patients.