Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) is a popular way to test, evaluate and diagnose multiple conditions because it offers insight into bones, organs, and tissue. The United States is in second place for the highest number of MRIs per capita, with nearly 26 MRI units per million people behind Japan. Diffusion Tensor Imaging (DTI) is different from standard MRI scans, so it’s beneficial for you to understand why you would need it. Your doctor or lawyer might request a DTI MRI for a number of reasons. A DTI will provide a superior image to your doctor showing how you’ve been affected by a traumatic brain injury involving your brainstem, brain, or spine.
What is a Diffusion Tensor Imaging (DTI) MRI?
A Diffusion Tensor Imaging (DTI) is a protocol cleared by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to show where and how a person has been affected by a critical traumatic injury. The DTI MRI has a wealth of peer-reviewed evidence in more than 20,000 publications. The veracity of the evidence is strong enough that courts also accept it as evidence in personal injury cases involving head injuries.
The DTI MRI is more sensitive than regular MRIs, so that it will give you more details about your head injury, whether you’ve experienced an explosion, anoxic injury, motor vehicle accidents, fight, fall, or another violent event. The DTI validates the injury. So, if brain trauma does exist, a DTI is your best option to detect an injury.
The DTI MRI has been around since the 1990s. Peter Basser introduced the DTI technique in 1994 as an improvement on the more conventional MRI. This technique uses water diffusion to determine the anatomy of the brain. DTI was first used to diagnose acute stroke, cerebral ischemia, and multiple sclerosis. A DTI can also be used to understand arterial-venous malformations, traumatic brain injury, epilepsy, and brain tumors.
How Is DTI Performed?
The process of taking a DTI MRI is very similar to a high-field MRI, which uses radio waves, powerful magnets, and a computer to take pictures inside your body.
During a DTI MRI, we do not use the ionizing radiation you’d experience with computed tomography (CT) scans or X-rays. Our radiologist assesses the movement of water molecules, which is unrestrained. Anything lower than .3 or .35 indicates an abnormality and brain damage.
The DTI software runs on MRI machines, with a 3T magnet. It runs concurrently with regular MRI scans.
Why Would You Need a DTI?
Your doctor or lawyer might order or request a DTI MRI if you have experienced a possible traumatic brain injury, disorder, or abnormality. A legal or medical expert needs evidence and documentation on how the injury may affect your health. The DTI is just another way of looking at the MRI scan data. It’s more accurate than the PET Scan, CAT Scan, or SPECT for determining the presence and severity of your traumatic brain injury. Particularly in cases where a CT or even a traditional MRI doesn’t show abnormalities, the DTI can show the real impact of your high-velocity accident. The DTI can also show cognitive decline as part of neuropsychological testing.
If a DTI MRI does show a bran abnormality, an experienced radiologist will determine it means. It could be that the abnormality is an old traumatic brain injury, an old stroke, an infection from some time ago, or even a brain surgery that you had.
Another reason for the abnormality could be a congenital defect, although that type of abnormality would typically appear as a global issue. The abnormality will probably appear as a directional issue if you have been affected by a traumatic brain injury or event. If you hit the left side of your head in a car accident or other blow to the head, for example, your radiologist will probably notice a decrease in white matter tracts on the left side of your brain where you hit your head.
In other words, the injured area should appear in the same general area on the DTI.
How Do You Prove Damages With DTI?
DTIs have now been used long enough that, in general, the results are accepted in court. That said, if you are trying to prove damages, it will always be more effective if you have a DTI expert to represent your interests during the case.
At University Medical Imaging, our DTI expertise can help you rule out other possible causes for brain abnormalities. DTI can provide insight into your current condition and aid your recovery. Traumatic brain injury can and does affect your brain in wide-ranging ways, with long-term consequences. It might feel like your wires got crossed or that the diagnosis raises more questions than answers, but it’s helpful to understand where and how the disruption will be affecting your neurological health and wellbeing now and for years to come.
Our robust technology at University Medical Imaging also allows us to offer diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) with 3D tractography and CartiGram cartilage mapping. For all MRI scan applications, better images mean a better report and a better diagnosis. Your image is everything to us.
If you seek a DTI MRI, your doctor must send a medical referral to us before we can schedule your DTI MRI scan. You can call us at 916-922-6747 to confirm that we have received your referral form. Download the doctor referral form here.