MR diffusion tensor imaging of white matter tract disruption in stroke at 3 T

Recent advances in MR diffusion weighted imaging (DWI) enable the identific ation of anisotropic white matter tracts with diffusion tensor imaging (DTI ). We aimed to use a novel DTI technique to safely study patients with rece nt stroke in a high field (3 T) MR machine with its intrinsically higher sp atial resolution and signal-to-noise ratio. Of ten patients studied, six ha d disruption of white matter tracts as determined by DTI. A further patient had distortion of white matter tracts around an infarct rather than actual disruption of the tracts themselves. The lack of tract destruction may imp ly a beneficial prognosis, information that is not available with conventio nal DWI.