Abstract: Objective To investigate the effect of exercise load on apparent diffusion coefficient (ADC) and fractional anisotropy
(FA) of normal lumbar intervertebral discs in magnetic resonance (MR) diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) . Methods Thirty
healthy volunteers (24 males and 6 females, aged 19 to 25 years) underwent examinations with MR T2WI and DTI of the
lumbar intervertebral discs before and after exercise load. Pfirrmann grading was evaluated with T2WI, and the B0 map, ADC
map and FA map were reconstructed based on the DTI data to investigate the changes in ADC and FA after exercise. Results
Of the 30 volunteers (150 intervertebral discs) receiving the examination, 27 with discs of Pfirrminn grade II were included for
analysis. In these 27 volunteers, the average ADC and FA before exercise were (1.99 ± 0.18) × 10-3 mm2/s and 0.155 ± 0.059,
respectively. After exercise, ADC was lowered significantly to (1.93 ± 0.17) × 10-3 mm2/s (P<0.05) and FA increased slightly to
0.1623 ± 0.017 (P>0.05). Conclusion DTI allows quantitatively analysis of the changes in water molecular diffusion and
anisotropy of the lumbar intervertebral discs after exercise load, which can cause a decreased ADC and a increased FA value,
and the change of ADC is more sensitive to exercise load.