Current Clinical Applications of Diffusion-Tensor Imaging in Neurological Disorders

作者：Woo‐Suk Tae, Byung‐Joo Ham, Sung‐Bom Pyun, Shin-Hyuk Kang, Byung‐Jo Kim · 发表于：Journal of Clinical Neurology · 年份：2018 · DOI：10.3988/jcn.2018.14.2.129 · 被引用次数：307 · 研究领域：Advanced Neuroimaging Techniques and Applications、Neurological and metabolic disorders、Fetal and Pediatric Neurological Disorders

Diffusion-tensor imaging (DTI) is a noninvasive medical imaging tool used to investigate the structure of white matter. The signal contrast in DTI is generated by differences in the Brownian motion of the water molecules in brain tissue. Postprocessed DTI scalars can be used to evaluate changes in the brain tissue caused by disease, disease progression, and treatment responses, which has led to an enormous amount of interest in DTI in clinical research. This review article provides insights into DTI scalars and the biological background of DTI as a relatively new neuroimaging modality. Further, it summarizes the clinical role of DTI in various disease processes such as amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, multiple sclerosis, Parkinson's disease, Alzheimer's dementia, epilepsy, ischemic stroke, stroke with motor or language impairment, traumatic brain injury, spinal cord injury, and depression. Valuable DTI postprocessing tools for clinical research are also introduced.