At LSO we are currently looking at obtaining ‘nervograms’ for the first time. Diffusion Tensor Imaging has been used to look at brain tracts for some time now. 

There are a few papers from around the world describing this technique for looking at peripheral nerves. With the latest 3T MRI technology we now have the resolution to try to do this on small peripheral nerves. 

Even with the high resolution provided with these latest scanners, finding the median nerve and seeding the tracer colour into the right part of the image is still surprisingly difficult.

With the help of the HCA radiology department, and in particular Dr David Elias and Tamsin O’Shaughnessy, we are starting to get meaningful 3D images of the Median nerve in the carpal tunnel 

We plan to plot these findings against nerve conduction study results and use the information in the same way that a vascular surgeon uses an angiogram. We hope these ‘nervograms’ will become just as valuable an asset to surgeons operating on peripheral nerves as angiograms are in vascular surgery.