Objective

To measure T2 values for magnetic resonance neurography (MRN) of the healthy distal sciatic nerve and compare those to T2 changes in patients with nerve compression.

Materials and methods

Twenty-one healthy subjects and five patients with sciatica due to disc herniation underwent MRN using a T2-prepared turbo spin echo (TSE) sequence of the distal sciatic nerve bilaterally. Six and one of those healthy subjects further underwent a commonly used multi-echo spin-echo (MESE) sequence and magnetic resonance spectroscopy (MRS), respectively.

Results

T2 values derived from the T2-prepared TSE sequence were 44.6 ± 3.0 ms (left) and 44.5 ± 2.6 ms (right) in healthy subjects and showed good inter-reader reliability. In patients, T2 values of 61.5 ± 6.2 ms (affected side) versus 43.3 ± 2.4 ms (unaffected side) were obtained. T2 values of MRS were in good agreement with measurements from the T2-prepared TSE, but not with those of the MESE sequence.

Discussion

A T2-prepared TSE sequence enables precise determination of T2 values of the distal sciatic nerve in agreement with MRS. A MESE sequence tends to overestimate nerve T2 compared to T2 from MRS due to the influence of residual fat on T2 quantification. Our approach may enable to quantitatively assess direct nerve affection related to nerve compression.

中文翻译：

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健康受试者和患有腰椎间盘突出症并伴有神经压迫的患者坐骨神经远端的 T2 标测。

客观的

测量健康远端坐骨神经的磁共振神经成像 (MRN) 的 T2 值，并将其与神经受压患者的 T2 变化进行比较。

材料和方法

21 名健康受试者和 5 名因椎间盘突出症而坐骨神经痛的患者接受了双侧坐骨神经远端 T2 制备的涡轮自旋回波 (TSE) 序列的 MRN。其中六名和一名健康受试者分别进一步接受了常用的多回波自旋回波 (MESE) 序列和磁共振波谱 (MRS)。

结果

来自 T2 准备的 TSE 序列的 T2 值在健康受试者中分别为 44.6 ± 3.0 ms（左）和 44.5 ± 2.6 ms（右），并显示出良好的读者间可靠性。在患者中，获得的 T2 值分别为 61.5 ± 6.2 ms（患侧）与 43.3 ± 2.4 ms（未患侧）。MRS 的 T2 值与 T2 制备的 TSE 的测量值非常一致，但与 MESE 序列的测量值不一致。

讨论

T2 准备的 TSE 序列能够精确确定远端坐骨神经的 T2 值，与 MRS 一致。由于残余脂肪对 T2 量化的影响，与来自 MRS 的 T2 相比，MESE 序列倾向于高估神经 T2。我们的方法可能能够定量评估与神经压迫相关的直接神经影响。