title: Increased medial thalamic choline in pediatric obsessive-compulsive disorder as detected by quantitative in vivo spectroscopic imaging.
abstract: The thalamus has been implicated in the pathophysiology of obsessive-compulsive disorder. Using a multislice spectroscopic imaging sequence, we reported reductions in right and left medial thalamic N-acetylaspartate/cytosolic choline + creatine/phosphocreatine and N-acetylaspartate/cytosolic choline levels in 11 pediatric patients with obsessive-compulsive disorder, 8 to 15 years, versus 11 case-matched healthy controls. These changes may reflect a change in N-acetylaspartate, cytosolic choline, or creatine concentrations. Therefore, using a validated phantom replacement methodology, we obtained absolute measures (mmol/L) of N-acetylaspartate, a putative marker of neuronal viability, cytosolic choline, and creatine in these subjects. A significant increase in cytosolic choline was observed in right and left medial but not lateral thalami in patients with obsessive-compulsive disorder versus controls. N-acetylaspartate and creatine did not differ significantly between case-control pairs in the medial or lateral thalamus. These findings provide new evidence of cytosolic choline abnormalities in the thalamus in pediatric obsessive-compulsive disorder.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Neurosciences, Wayne State University School of Medicine, Detroit, MI, USA. drosen@med.wayne.edu
authors.forename: D R
authors.initials: DR
authors.lastname: Rosenberg
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Amponsah
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Sullivan
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: MacMillan
authors.forename: G J
authors.initials: GJ
authors.lastname: Moore
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D001224:Aspartic Acid / Q000031:analogs & derivatives* / Q000378:metabolism; D001931:Brain Mapping; D016022:Case-Control Studies; D002648:Child; D002794:Choline / Q000378:metabolism*; D003401:Creatine / Q000378:metabolism; D003600:Cytosol / Q000378:metabolism; D004292:Dominance, Cerebral / Q000502:physiology; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007091:Image Processing, Computer-Assisted; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging; D009682:Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy; D008297:Male; D009771:Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder / Q000175:diagnosis*; D012016:Reference Values; D013788:Thalamus / Q000473:pathology*
chemical_list: D001224:Aspartic Acid; C000179:N-acetylaspartate; D003401:Creatine; D002794:Choline