Diffusion MR imaging in the corticospinal tract of idiopathic scoliosis

Many studies have shown that idiopathic scoliosis is not only a deformity of the spine. It is often associated with neurological impairment without any macroscopic abnormality in the brain. In our previous diffusion MRI study, we demonstrated that children with right-thoracic idiopathic scoliosis had abnormal white matter microstructure of the crossing premotor fibres in the corpus callosum. Based on this, we hypothesized that similar microstructural changes could affect the main descending white matter tracts, the corticospinal tract. We compared the fractional anisotropy values along the corticospinal tracts in ten patients with right-thoracic and ten patients with left-thoracic idiopathic scoliosis to 49 healthy controls. We found abnormal left-right asymmetry of the fractional anisotropy values in scoliosis patients at the level of the pons. Whereas at upper levels the values were similar across all groups. Our results suggest that abnormal sensorimotor integration at the level of the pons is associated with the development of idiopathic scoliosis.