Abstract:[Objective] To investigate the significance of magnetic resonance imaging with diffusion tensor imaging (MRI- DTI) for identifying the responsible segments of adult degenerative scoliosis (ADS) . [Methods] A total of 36 patients who were undergoing surgical treatment for ADS in our hospital from June 2017 to September 2019 were enrolled in this study. All patients received conventional preoper- ative MRI and MRI-DTI examinations, and the differences of fractional anisotropy (FA) values between symptomatic and asymptomatic nerve roots were compared. In addition, ODI, JOA, VAS scores and imaging parameters were used to evaluate the clinical efficacy. [Results] There were significant differences in FA values between symptomatic nerve roots and asymptomatic nerve roots in ADS patients (P< 0.05) . The MRI-DTI nerve root location was basically consistent with symptoms or nerve block location. The ODI, VAS-BP and VAS-LP scores significantly decreased (P<0.05) , while JOA scores significantly increased over time (P<0.05) . However, there were no significant changes in JOA, ODI, VAS-BP and VAS-LP scores among different postoperative time points (P>0.05) . In terms of image measurement, the Cobb angle, lumbar lordosis (LL) , sacral slope (SS) , pelvic title (PT) , intervertebral space height and intervertebral foramina area sig- nificantly improved after operation compared with those preoperatively (P<0.05) . [Conclusion] MRI-DTI might be used as the basis to de- termine the nerve root segment related to symptoms, and is highly consistent with clinical symptoms. According to MRI-DTI results, respon- sible segments were located and precise nerve root decompression was performed, with good clinical efficacy.