Cranial Nerves Tractography

Diffusion Tensor Imaging and Tractography for Cranial Nerves. Interest in Skull Base Surgery and Anatomy

Status

Recruiting

Phases

Unknown

Study type

Interventional

Source

ClinicalTrials.gov

Registry ID

NCT02978911

Acronym

CN Tracto

Enrollment

120

Registered

2016-12-01

Start date

2016-07-12

Completion date

2026-07-12

Last updated

2026-01-21

For informational purposes only — not medical advice. Sourced from public registries and may not reflect the latest updates. Terms

Conditions

Cranial Nerve Palsy

Keywords

RMI

Brief summary

Introduction: The skull base tumors surgery remains a challenge since numerous cranial nerves or vessels closely surround them. Recently, diffusion tensor imaging has developed with the tractography following white fibers and visualizing functional tracts. Cranial nerves tractography could allow predicting their displacement by skull base tumors that may help the surgeon to spare them along the surgery. Methods: Preoperative cerebral MRI was performed on patients who presented with skull base tumors. A 3 tesla MRI machine was used to acquire DTI sequence with specific parameters: 32 directions, slice thickness 2 mm, echo time 86 ms, repetition time 12000 ms, matrix 128x128, b-value 1000 s.mm-1. An anatomic sequence hyperT2 was overlaid as reference. Distortion was corrected by topup and eddy functions from FSL. Cranial nerves fibers were probabilistically tracked with Mrtrix3. Cranial nerves were selected according to their location around the tumor. The "radiological" expected position of the cranial nerve was compared to its "operative" real position.

Interventions

PROCEDUREpreoperative cerebral MRI and operative findings

Study design

Allocation

Intervention model

SINGLE_GROUP

Primary purpose

DIAGNOSTIC

Masking

NONE

Eligibility

Sex/Gender

ALL

Age

18 Years to No maximum

Healthy volunteers

Inclusion criteria

* Patients who present a skull base tumor that requires surgical removal * Patients adult, informed and agreed

Exclusion criteria

* Pregnant women * Patients under 18 years old, unable to legally consent

Design outcomes

Primary

Measure	Time frame	Description
Correlation between the expected and the real position of the selected cranial nerve	Date of preoperative MRI (<3 months before the surgery)	Selection of one or multiples cranial nerves of interest due to their close relationship with the tumor. Comparison of its/their position on MRI and during surgery.

Secondary

Measure	Time frame	Description
postoperative cranial nerve palsy	at 3 months	comparison with preoperative status

Countries

France

Contacts

CONTACTTimothée Jacquesson, MD

timothee.jacquesson@neurochirurgie.fr472356921

PRINCIPAL_INVESTIGATORTimothée Jacquesson, MD

Hospices Civils de Lyon

Outcome results

None listed

Source: ClinicalTrials.gov · Data processed: Feb 4, 2026