Fig. 5

The apparent diffusion coefficient values of the sciatic and femoral nerves. a The overall distribution of ADC values. The ADC value of the sciatic nerve was decreased significantly at the S1 root level compared to the femoral head and the midpoint. The femoral nerve also shows low values. b Gender differences in the ADC values. Blue boxes in men and red boxes in women. c Laterality of the ADC values. Yellow boxes in the right side and green boxes the left side. d A scatterplot of age versus ADC values from the femoral nerve, showing no significant correlation. FH level femoral head level. *p < 0.05