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(Stroke. 2005;36:2526.)
© 2005 American Heart Association, Inc.

Editorials

Diffusion Histograms in CADASIL

Hugues Chabriat, MD, PhD

From the Department of Neurology, Hopital Lariboisier, Université Paris 7, France.

Correspondence to Hugues Chabriat, MD, PhD. Department of Neurology, Hopital Lariboisiere, Université Paris 7, 2 rue Ambroise Paré, 75010 Paris, France. E-mail hugues.chabriat@lrb.ap-hop-paris.fr

Key Words: CADASIL • diffusion • MRI

An extract of the first 250 words of the full text is provided, because this article has no abstract.

See related article, pages 2559–2565

Diffusion MRI is a unique tool to investigate the microstructure of cerebral tissue. Diffusion-driven displacements of water molecules can probe the tissue architecture at a microscopic scale well beyond the usual image resolution.¹ Diffusion is a 3D process. In cerebral white matter, where the movements of water molecules are maximal along the bundles of axons, molecular mobility may be anisotropic. In acute ischemia, cytotoxic edema, which occurs after the failure of ATP-dependent ionic pumps at the cell membrane, is responsible for a reduction of the extracellular space and increased tortuosity. These structural alterations are presumably responsible for the major reduction in the random movements of water molecules (eg, diffusion) detected early after arterial occlusion. Conversely, beyond the acute phase of ischemia, MRI diffusion has been used to measure the loss of structural components responsible for the increase in movements of water molecules. Increased diffusion and loss of diffusion anisotropy have been detected not only inside the ischemic area but also in cerebral regions remote from the core infarct.²

Small vessel diseases (SVDs) are responsible for diffuse cerebral lesions located mostly in the subcortical gray and white matter in both hemispheres. These lesions are presumably caused by chronic ischemia and possibly by secondary degenerative processes. Diffusion tensor imaging studies previously showed an increase in diffusion and loss of anisotropy in hyperintense areas, as seen on T2-weighted images in various SVDs, particularly in hypertension-related SVDs,³ as well as in Cerebral Autosomal Dominant Arteriopathy with Subcortical Infarcts . . . [Full Text of this Article]

Related Article:

Diffusion Magnetic Resonance Histograms as a Surrogate Marker and Predictor of Disease Progression in CADASIL: A Two-Year Follow-Up Study

Markus Holtmannspötter, Nils Peters, Christian Opherk, Daniel Martin, Jürgen Herzog, Hartmut Brückmann, Philipp Sämann, Andreas Gschwendtner, and Martin Dichgans
Stroke 2005 36: 2559-2565. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

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