Recovery of injured corticoreticulospinal tract following cranioplasty in an ischemic stroke patient: a diffusion tensor tractography study

The corticoreticular pathway(CRP),which mainly mediates proximal and axial muscles,is an important neural tract for gait and postural stability,whereas the corticospinal tract is mainly involved in control of the distal muscles(Jang et al.,2005).Since development of diffusion tensor tractography(DTT),which is derived from diffusion tensor imaging(DTI),a few studies have demonstrated injury of neural tracts following cranioplasty in patients with stroke.In the current study,we report on a stroke patient who underwent decompressive craniectomy showed recovery of the CRP,using DTT.A 48-year-old right-handed male was diagnosed with infarction in the left middle cerebral artery(Figure 1A).