MRI in the assessment of motor function restoration in patients with chronic supratentorial infarction

Abstract

To analyze potential of different MRI methods in the quantitativeassessment of brain lesions after ischemic stroke, 19 patients(mean age 38.96.2 years) with hemiparesis of various severityresulted from supratentorial ischemic stroke (612 months priorthe examination) were studied. A relationship was establishedbetween such parameters as fractional anisotropy (FA), apparentdiffusion coefficient (ADC), size of the brain lesion, and severityof motor deficit. The FA and ADC values obtained in the corticospinaltract (CST) projection allow them to be considered asindicators of the degree of the CST post-ischemic damage predictingmotor deficit. FA was found to be the most reproducibleindicator of the CST structural integrity. FA threshold values(index, %) for unfavorable outcome of the motor functionrestoration were determined as follows: 50% for posterior limb ofinternal capsule, 42% for cerebral peduncle, and 65% for ponsvarolii. High sensitivity and specificity of the obtained parametersprovides ground for their use in identifying patients withpoor prognosis for the motor function restoration.

Keywords

• ischemic stroke
• motor recovery
• fractional anisotropy
• apparent diffusion coefficient
• infarction volume