The Role of Diffusion Tensor Imaging (DTI) in Developmental Brain Anomalies in Pediatric Age Group

Abstract
Background: Neurodevelopmental disorders are complex processes with underlying abnormalities of white matter tracts. DTI is an advanced neuroimaging technique that can delineate the underlying abnormal white matter tracts in these disorders.
Purpose: To demonstrate the role of diffusion tensor imaging and the tarctography techniques in the diagnosis of brain developmental anomalies in pediatric age group.
Patients and Methods: This is a prospective study carried out in Radio-Diagnosis Department, Faculty of Medicine, Cairo University between March 2014 and October 2015. It included eleven patients (1 day-15 years) having neurological dysfunctional symptoms and ten control subjects of the same age group. Conventional MRI images and tractography maps were used. The examined tracts were Corpus Callosum (CC), corticospinal tract (Cst), superior and inferior longitudinal fasciculi (SLF, ILF). Fractional Anisotropy (FA) was measured at bilateral frontal, parietal and occipital white matters regions.
Results: Nine cases out of eleven cases with positive conventional MRI findings showed additional DTI findings. e.g tract disruption, absent or attenuated fibers Altered FA values in the white matter tracts were also found.
Conclusion: This study emphasis the feasibility of applying DTI technique in the evaluation of developmental brain anomalies to demonstrate additional findings not clearly visualized in conventional MR images to increase the diag-nostic accuracy.