Editorial
Copyright ©The Author(s) 2016. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Clin Cases. Jan 16, 2016; 4(1): 1-4
Published online Jan 16, 2016. doi: 10.12998/wjcc.v4.i1.1
Magnetic resonance diffusion tensor imaging and fiber-tracking diffusion tensor tractography in the management of spinal astrocytomas
Alessandro Landi, Valeria Palmarini, Alessandro D’Elia, Nicola Marotta, Maurizio Salvati, Antonio Santoro, Roberto Delfini
Alessandro Landi, Valeria Palmarini, Alessandro D’Elia, Nicola Marotta, Maurizio Salvati, Antonio Santoro, Roberto Delfini, Department of Neurology and Psychiatry, Division of Neurosurgery, University of Rome “Sapienza”, 00181 Rome, Italy
Author contributions: Landi A and Palmarini V designed work and wrote the manuscript; D’Elia A, Marotta N researched the bibliography; Salvati M, Santoro A and Delfini R have supervised and corrected the manuscript.
Conflict-of-interest statement: The author has no conflict of interests.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article which was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Correspondence to: Alessandro Landi, MD, PhD, Department of Neurology and Psychiatry, Division of Neurosurgery, University of Rome “Sapienza”, Viale del Policlinico 155, 00181 Rome, Italy. dott.alessandro.landi@gmail.com
Telephone: +39-064-9979105 Fax: +39-064-9979105
Received: April 17, 2015
Peer-review started: April 18, 2015
First decision: July 6, 2015
Revised: October 14, 2015
Accepted: December 1, 2015
Article in press: December 2, 2015
Published online: January 16, 2016
Core Tip

Core tip: Intramedullary high grade astocytomas are rare tumors of spinal cord. Current surgical treatment involves loss of neurological function. The possibility to visualize directly the white matter tracts in the spine, with the applications of specific sequences of magnetic resonance imaging (diffusion-weighted imaging, diffusion tensor imaging and fractional anisotropy) allows neurosurgeons to better guide the surgical approach and resection, with the goal of neurological function preservation.