gms | German Medical Science

57th Annual Meeting of the German Society of Neurosurgery
Joint Meeting with the Japanese Neurosurgical Society

German Society of Neurosurgery (DGNC)

11 - 14 May, Essen

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White matter trajectories in pre- and postoperative DTI examination and fiber tracking for patients with brain stem cavernomas

Darstellung der langen Bahnen mittels DTI und Fibertracking prä- und post-OP bei Patienten mit Hirnstamm-Kavernom

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  • corresponding author T. Dukatz - Abteilung für Neurochirurgie, Marburg
  • U. Sure - Abteilung für Neurochirurgie, Marburg
  • J. Iwinska-Zelder - Abteilung für Neuroradiologie, Marburg
  • T.F. Beyer - Abteilung für Neuroradiologie, Marburg
  • H. Hahn - MeVis Institut Bremen
  • J. Klein - MeVis Institut Bremen
  • L. Benes - Abteilung für Neurochirurgie, Marburg
  • H. Bertalanffy - Abteilung für Neurochirurgie, Marburg

Deutsche Gesellschaft für Neurochirurgie. Japanische Gesellschaft für Neurochirurgie. 57. Jahrestagung der Deutschen Gesellschaft für Neurochirurgie e.V. (DGNC), Joint Meeting mit der Japanischen Gesellschaft für Neurochirurgie. Essen, 11.-14.05.2006. Düsseldorf, Köln: German Medical Science; 2006. DocP 04.53

The electronic version of this article is the complete one and can be found online at: http://www.egms.de/en/meetings/dgnc2006/06dgnc270.shtml

Published: May 8, 2006

© 2006 Dukatz et al.
This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/deed.en). You are free: to Share – to copy, distribute and transmit the work, provided the original author and source are credited.

Outline

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Objective: The aim of our study was to verify the possible to reliably visualize the alterations of white matter trajectories in patients with brain stem cavernous angiomas (CCMs) using diffusion-tensor imaging (DTI)-MRI and fiber tracking.

Methods: DTI measures the motion of hydrogen atoms within the water molecules in all three dimensions. This method allows direct, non-invasive examination of white matter fiber tracts in vivo and has already a broad range of applications in the clinical neurosciences. Between March 2003 and July 2005 twelve patients (5 males, 7 females, mean age 38.5±5.4, range 18 to 55 years) with brain stem cavernomas were investigated with DTI-MRI (GE, 1.5 Tesla) and fibertracking (NeuroQLab, MeVis, Bremen) in order to calculate the anisotropy maps and to evaluate white matter trajectories pre- and postoperatively.

Results: In cases of brainstem cavernomas, anisotropy maps could well delineate the damage of white matter tracts, which corresponded in all patients to the individual neurological impairment. The elasticity of the nervous tracts dislocated by huge CCMs was documented by fibertracking in 2 cases pre- compared to postoperatively.

Conclusions: According to our experience both DTI and fibertracking visualize white matter trajectories within the brainstem. Such investigation may have an impact in planning of microsurgical approaches to this surgically difficult target area.