Cranial Nerves Tractography (CN Tracto)

January 19, 2026 updated by: Hospices Civils de Lyon

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

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.

Study Overview

Status

Recruiting

Conditions

Intervention / Treatment

Study Type

Interventional

Enrollment (Estimated)

120

Phase

  • Not Applicable

Contacts and Locations

This section provides the contact details for those conducting the study, and information on where this study is being conducted.

Study Contact

Study Locations

  • France
      • Bron, France, 69500
        • Recruiting
        • Service de Neurologie B, Hôpital Neurologique, HCL
        • Contact:
        • Principal Investigator:
          • Timothée Jacquesson, MD

Participation Criteria

Researchers look for people who fit a certain description, called eligibility criteria. Some examples of these criteria are a person's general health condition or prior treatments.

Eligibility Criteria

Ages Eligible for Study

18 years and older (Adult, Older Adult)

Accepts Healthy Volunteers

No

Description

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

Study Plan

This section provides details of the study plan, including how the study is designed and what the study is measuring.

How is the study designed?

Design Details

  • Primary Purpose: Diagnostic
  • Allocation: N/A
  • Interventional Model: Single Group Assignment
  • Masking: None (Open Label)

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm
Intervention / Treatment
Experimental: Skull base tumors
Patients who presented a skull base tumor that requires a surgical removal
Procedure: preoperative cerebral MRI and operative findings

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Measure Description
Time Frame
Correlation between the expected and the real position of the selected cranial nerve
Time Frame: 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.
Date of preoperative MRI (<3 months before the surgery)
Correlation between the expected and the real position of the selected cranial nerve
Time Frame: at 3 months
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.
at 3 months

Secondary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Measure Description
Time Frame
postoperative cranial nerve palsy
Time Frame: at 3 months
comparison with preoperative status
at 3 months

Collaborators and Investigators

This is where you will find people and organizations involved with this study.

Sponsor

Hospices Civils de Lyon

Investigators

  • Principal Investigator: Timothée Jacquesson, MD, Hospices Civils de Lyon

Study record dates

These dates track the progress of study record and summary results submissions to ClinicalTrials.gov. Study records and reported results are reviewed by the National Library of Medicine (NLM) to make sure they meet specific quality control standards before being posted on the public website.

Study Major Dates

Study Start (Actual)

July 12, 2016

Primary Completion (Estimated)

July 12, 2026

Study Completion (Estimated)

July 12, 2026

Study Registration Dates

First Submitted

November 23, 2016

First Submitted That Met QC Criteria

November 29, 2016

First Posted (Estimated)

December 1, 2016

Study Record Updates

Last Update Posted (Actual)

January 21, 2026

Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria

January 19, 2026

Last Verified

January 1, 2026

More Information

Terms related to this study

Keywords

Additional Relevant MeSH Terms

Other Study ID Numbers

  • 69HCL16_0759
  • 2015-A01113-46 (Other Identifier: ID-RCB)

Plan for Individual participant data (IPD)

Plan to Share Individual Participant Data (IPD)?

NO

This information was retrieved directly from the website clinicaltrials.gov without any changes. If you have any requests to change, remove or update your study details, please contact register@clinicaltrials.gov. As soon as a change is implemented on clinicaltrials.gov, this will be updated automatically on our website as well.

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