Evaluation of the Relationship Between Neuromotor Outcome and Wallerian Degeneration of Corticospinal Tract after Cerebral Infarction Using Diffusion-tensor MR Imaging

Aim:To evaluate the relationship between neuromotor outcome and Wallerian degeneration of corticospinal tract after cerebral infarction using Diffusion-tensor MR imaging.Methods:Eleven children with MCA stroke were studied with diffusion-tensor MRI.Quantitative FA and MD,obtained by manually placing regions-of-interest(ROI) within the infarction,and along the ipsilateral corticospinal tract,i.e.the posterior limb of the internal capsule and cerebral peduncle,were compared with matched contralateral regions using the Mann-Whitney U-test.Spearman's correlation was performed to study the relationship between the ratio of the ipsilateral to contralateral corticospinal tract FA,MD and neuromotor outcome which was graded into mild,moderate,severe hemiparesis.Results:The FA,but not the MD,of the ipsilateral corticospinal tract was significantly different compared to the normal side(P0.05).Statistically significant correlation between outcome and FA corticospinal tract ratio(r=-0.638,P=0.035) but not with MD corticospinal tract ratio. Conclusion:DTI is a potentially useful tool for the prediction of neuromotor outcome.