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STUDY DESIGN: Prospective observational-analytical study. OBJECTIVES: Description of diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) metrics obtained from the spinal cord (SC) of dogs with severe acute or chronic spontaneous, non-experimentally induced spinal cord injury (SCI) and correlation of DTI values with lesion extent of SCI measured in T2-weighted (T2W) magnetic resonance imaging sequences. SETTING: Hannover, Germany. METHODS: Forty-seven paraplegic dogs, 32 with acute and 15 with chronic SCI, and 6 disease controls were included. T2W and DTI sequences of the thoracolumbar spinal cord were performed. Values of fractional anisotropy (FA) and apparent diffusion coefficient (ADC) were obtained from the epicentre of the lesion and one SC segment cranially and caudally and compared between groups. Pearson's correlation coefficient was calculated between DTI and T2W metrics. RESULTS: During acute SCI, FA values were increased (P=0.0065) and ADC values were decreased (P=0.0099) at epicentres compared to disease controls. FA values obtained from dogs with chronic SCI were lower (P