Izabela Kowalczyk1,2, Stuart Malcolm Kenne
McGregor3, Neil Duggal1,4, Robert Bartha1,2
1Medical Biophysics, the
University of Western Ontario, London, Ontario, Canada; 2Centre
for Functional & Metabolite Mapping, Robarts Research Institute, London,
Ontario, Canada; 3Clinical Neurological Sciences, Univerity
Hospital, London Health Sciences Centre, London, Ontario, Canada; 4Clinical
Neurological Sciences, University Hospital, London Health Sciences Centre,
London, Ontario, Canada
Seventeen cervical spondylotic myelopathy (CSM) patients and ten controls underwent Diffusion Tensor Imaging on a 3.0 T Siemens Magnetom Tim Trio to characterize structural integrity of the motor and sensory cortex. Significantly increased fractional anisotropy (FA) was detected in the right motor cortex (p=0.02) in CSM group compared to controls with a similar trend in the left motor cortex (p=0.05). Increased FA suggests a response to inflammation or increased glial activity. No differences were detected in mean diffusivity. The right sensory FA correlated with the Japanese Orthopaedic Association score (r2=0.37, p=0.006). Future work will examine changes in associated white matter tracks.