[Line scan diffusion weighted imaging (LSDI) on 0.2 Tesla MRI of the normal cervical cord in vivo: preliminary study].

Diffusion weighted imaging(DWI) has been widely performed in the brain. However, DWI of the spinal cord is rarely performed because of technical and physiologic problems. Line scan diffusion weighted imaging(LSDI) is spin-echo based and relatively insensitive to susceptibility artifacts. We calculated the apparent diffusion coefficient(ADC) values of the normal cervical spinal cord by LSDI on a 0.2 Tesla MR imager and compared the ADC values with those from 1.5 Tesla MRI previously reported in the literature. The ADC values were adequate, and LSDI on 0.2 Tesla MRI is expected to become a useful tool for clinical application.