Yasuhiro OIkawa1,
Yawara Eguchi1, Seiji Ohtori1, Sumihisa Orita1,
Kazuyo Yamauchi1, Miyako Suzuki1, Yoshihiro Sakuma1,
Go Kubota1, Kazuhide Inage1, Takeshi Saino1,
HIrotaka Sato2, Hiroki Ando2, Masatoshi Kojima2,
Kenichiro Okumura2, Yoshitada Masuda2, Atsuya Watanabe3,
Kazuhisa Takahashi1
1Orthopaedic
Surgery, Graduate School of Medicine, Chiba University, Chiba, Japan; 2Radiology,
Graduate School of Medicine, Chiba University, Chiba, Japan; 3Orthopaedic
Surgery, Teikyou University Chiba Medical Center, Ichihara, Chiba, Japan
DTI and DTT have been reported as novel imaging tools for a quantitative nerve evaluation. The purpose of this study was to visualize and evaluate the lumbar nerve root quantitatively using DTI and DTT. Thirty-four patients were evaluate with DTI. This study demonstrates that tractography shows nerve roots and spinal nerve roots clearly in asymptomatic nerves, and shows abnormal findings in lumbar spinal degenerative disease. DTI may offer not only morphological evaluation but also quantitative evaluation. We believe that DTI is a potential tool for the diagnosis of lumbar spinal degenerative disease.