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Medical AI Inquiry: You was designed to assist in medical decision-making based on the provided user questions. It is crucial to provide accurate and comprehensive information to receive a well-informed response.  Labels: BACKGROUND, METHODS, RESULTS. Meshes: Animals, Brain, Brain Diseases, Diffusion Tensor Imaging, Female, Image Interpretation, Computer-Assisted, Rats, Reproducibility of Results, Sensitivity and Specificity, Spinal Cord Injuries, Trauma Severity Indices.
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Does severity of spinal cord injury influence diffusion tensor imaging of the brain? Context: The purpose of this study was to determine whether DTI changes in the brain induced by a thoracic spinal cord injury are sensitive to varying severity of spinal contusion in rats. A control, mild, moderate, or severe contusion injury was administered over the eighth thoracic vertebral level in 32 Sprague-Dawley rats. At 11 weeks postinjury, ex vivo DTI of the brain was performed on a 9.4T Bruker scanner using a pulsed gradient spin-echo sequence. Mean water diffusion in the internal capsule regions of the brain and pyramid locations of the brainstem were correlated with motor function (r(2)  = 0.55). Additionally, there were significant differences between injury severity groups for mean diffusivity and fractional anisotropy at regions associated with the corticospinal tract (P = 0.05).
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These results indicate that DTI is sensitive to changes in brain tissue as a consequence of thoracic SCI. Final Decision: yes