Diffusion tensor imaging can detect and quantify corticospinal tract degeneration after stroke

Another possibility for determining the damage and diagnosis from a stroke. Eventually a damage diagnosis will become standard policy and we will be able to compare and contrast strokes with each other.
http://jnnp.bmj.com/content/69/2/269.abstract

• Received 28 September 1999
• Revised 18 January 2000
• Accepted 12 April 2000

Abstract

Diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) fully characterises water molecule mobility in vivo, allowing an exploration of fibre tract integrity and orientation in the human brain. Using DTI this study demonstrates reduced fibre coherence (anisotropy) associated with cerebral infarction and in the corticospinal tract remote from the lesion, in five patients 2 to 6 months after ischaemic stroke. The study highlights the potential of DTI to detect and monitor the structural degeneration of fibre pathways, which may provide a better understanding of the pattern of clinical evolution after stroke.