Clinical use of diffusion-tensor imaging for diseases causing neuronal and axonal damage.

Diffusion-tensor imaging is an emerging technique that can supply microscopic structural information about tissue in vivo. With this technique it is possible to measure the amount of anisotropy of water diffusion within tissues and to assess the degree to which directionally ordered tissues have lost their normal integrity. This study was performed in four patients to evaluate the feasibility of applying this technique in clinical situations in which there is known or suspected damage to white matter tracts.