MRI新技术用于脊髓损伤后皮质脊髓束与脑运动皮质的研究

Application of new MRI techniques in the motor cortex and the corticospinal tract study after spinal cord injury

脊髓损伤可能引起不同程度的皮质脊髓束、运动皮质以及自主神经的损害,但对此尚无有效的治疗方法,并且目前也没有用于评估神经元损伤程度、阐明皮质重组机制以及预测临床结果的神经放射学标准。近年来,随着MRI技术的发展使得对这一领域的研究逐渐增多,一些MRI新技术在动物实验及临床研究中已显示出一定的优势,如基于体素形态测量学能够发现脊髓损伤后脑内相关功能区体积的改变,而扩散张量成像及血氧水平依赖技术可以从功能层面发现形态学上不能发现的脑内病变。因此,这些MRI新技术可以为更好地了解脊髓损伤后皮质脊髓束及脑内的变化提供重要信息。

Spinal cord injury can lead to different degrees of corticospinal tract, motor cortex and autonomic nerve damage, for which an effective treatment was awaited. However, neuroimaging criteria for assessing the extent of neural damage, interpreting the mechanisms of cortical reorganization and predicting clinical outcome have not been determined yet. Recently, with the development of magnetic resonance imaging （MRI）, related researches on this field were gradually carried out, and have shown a certain value in animal experiment and clinical research. Voxel-based morphometry can detect volume changes of relevant cerebral functional areas after spinal cord injury. Moreover, the diffusion tensor imaging and Blood-oxygen-level dependent technology can reveal functional changes, which can not be shown on structral imaging, such as, fractional anisotropy value decreases, mean diffusivity value increases and cerebral cortex activation of related cerebral areas after spinal cord injury. The new MRI techniques can potentially provide us important information for better understanding corticospinal tract and brain changes after spinal cord injury.