The Anatomy of the Medial Lemniscus within the Brainstem Demonstrated at 3 Tesla with High Resolution Fat Suppressed TI-Weighted Images and Diffusion Tensor Imaging.
The medial lemniscus is part of the main somatosensory pathways ascending within the brainstem. It is formed by the heavily myelinated axons of the second order neurones of the dorsal column nuclei. This pathway ascends through the rostral medulla, pons and mesencephalon to finally terminate by syna...
| Publicado en: | Neuroradiology Journal Vol. 24; no. 2; pp. 171 - 177 |
|---|---|
| Autores principales: | , , , , , , |
| Formato: | diagnostic images research Journal Article |
| Publicado: |
Sage Publications Inc.
Apr2011
|
| Acceso en línea: | Ver este registro en EBSCOhost |
| fields | @attributes: recordID: 1 pdfLink: plink: https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=ccm&AN=108243748&site=ehost-live header: @attributes: shortDbName: ccm uiTerm: 108243748 longDbName: CINAHL Complete uiTag: AN controlInfo: bkinfo: dissinfo: jinfo: jid: 19714009 6CL0 jtl: Neuroradiology Journal issn: 19714009 maglogo: Y pubinfo: dt: Apr2011 vid: 24 iid: 2 pid: 344 pub: Sage Publications Inc. place: Thousand Oaks, California artinfo: ui: 108243748 63084780 63084780 10.1177/197140091102400202 108243748 ppf: 171 ppct: 6 formats: tig: atl: The Anatomy of the Medial Lemniscus within the Brainstem Demonstrated at 3 Tesla with High Resolution Fat Suppressed TI-Weighted Images and Diffusion Tensor Imaging. aug: au: Romanowski, C. A. J. Hutton, M. Rowe, J. Yianni, J. Warren, D. Bigley, J. Wilkinson, I. D. affil: Department of Neuroradiology, Royal Hallamshire Hospital, Sheffield sug: subj: Brain Stem Anatomy and Histology Brain Stem Radiography Neural Pathways Radiography Diagnosis, Neurologic Methods Diagnosis, Neurologic Classification Human Male Adult Protocols Diagnostic Imaging Methods Magnetic Resonance Imaging Diagnostic Imaging Classification Volunteer Workers Adult: 19-44 years Male ab: The medial lemniscus is part of the main somatosensory pathways ascending within the brainstem. It is formed by the heavily myelinated axons of the second order neurones of the dorsal column nuclei. This pathway ascends through the rostral medulla, pons and mesencephalon to finally terminate by synapsing with third order neurones in the ventral posterior nucleus of the thalamus. The medial lemniscus conveys proprioception and fine tactile discrimination as part of the somatosensory system. Conventional MRI studies of the brainstem have been relatively poor in demonstrating these fibre pathways. Diffusion tensor imaging and tractography may demostrated fibre pathways in the brainstem. These techniques do however suffer from relatively poor spatial resolution and some degree of image distortion - especially if based on echo planar imaging techniques. Knowledge of the anatomical relationships of the medial lemniscus is important for the understanding of clinical manifestations of disease processes affecting the somatosensory pathways and also to demonstrate important adjacent structures. Specifically, the pedunculopontine nucleus (PPN) lies in close anatomical relationship to the medial lemniscus and the decussation of the superior cerebellar peduncle. This nucleus is a promising target for deep brain stimulator placement for alleviation of non-dopamine responsive dystonias. Six healthy male volunteers (mean age 33 years) were imaged at 3 Tesla. Imaging protocols consisted of thin section, high resolution, fat suppressed Tl-weighted sequences as well as thin section, high isotropic resolution diffusion tensor imaging (DTI), which was analysed to generate colour fractional anisotropy (FA) maps. These were correlated with the fat suppressed Tl weighted images. In all volunteers the medial lemniscus was seen as a pair of bands of low signal on axial, high resolution, fat suppressed Tl-weighted images. They were indentified through the upper medulla, pons and mesencephalon. They correlated well with the head to foot orientated fibres on the colour FA maps generated from the DTI data. This study of normal volunteers has illustrated the value of high resolution, fat suppressed Tl-weighted images in demonstrating the anatomy of the heavily myelinated medial lemniscus within the brainstem. These high resolution images with good spatial accuracy can potentially be used to aid the localisation of other nuclei, such as the PPN. pubtype: Academic Journal doctype: diagnostic images research Journal Article ougenre: Article language: English refInfo: holdings: @attributes: islocal: N |
|---|