Investigation of corpus callosum in schizophrenia with diffusion imaging.
BACKGROUND
Corpus callosum (CC) is the main white matter commissure between the two cerebral hemispheres. Abnormalities of CC have been shown in schizophrenia patients by magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) studies. We here further investigated CC organization with diffusion imaging (DWI) in a sample of schizophrenia patients recruited from the epidemiologically defined catchment area of South Verona, Italy.


METHODS
Sixty-seven patients with schizophrenia and 70 normal controls were studied. Regions of interests (ROIs), standardized at 5 pixels, were placed in CC on the non-diffusion weighted echoplanar images (b = 0) and were then automatically transferred to the corresponding maps to obtain the apparent diffusion coefficient (ADC) of water molecules.


RESULTS
ADC measures for all callosal subregions in schizophrenia patients were significantly greater compared to normal controls (ANCOVA, p < 0.05). Positive symptoms significantly correlated with anterior callosal ADC measures (partial correlation analyses, p < 0.05).


CONCLUSIONS
These findings support the existence of widespread microstructure disruption of CC in schizophrenia, which may ultimately lead to inter-hemispheric misconnection, and also suggest a specific role of anterior transcallosal disconnectivity in underlying positive symptoms. Future longitudinal MRI studies in high risk and first-episode patients together with neurophysiological tests are indicated to further examine CC anatomical abnormalities and inter-hemispheric transmission in schizophrenia.
Brambilla
Paolo
P
Department of Pathology and Clinical and Experimental Medicine, Section of Psychiatry, University of Udine, Udine, Italy. paolo.brambilla@uniud.it
Cerini
Roberto
R
Gasparini
Anna
A
Versace
Amelia
A
Andreone
Nicola
N
Vittorini
Enrico
E
Barbui
Corrado
C
Pelizza
Luisa
L
Nosè
Michela
M
Barlocco
Leone
L
Marrella
Giovanna
G
Gregis
Manuela
M
Tournikioti
Kalliopi
K
David
Antony S
AS
Keshavan
Matcheri S
MS
Tansella
Michele
M
D000328:Adult; D000704:Analysis of Variance; D001931:Brain Mapping; D010054:Brief Psychiatric Rating Scale / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D016022:Case-Control Studies; D016009:Chi-Square Distribution; D003337:Corpus Callosum / Q000473:pathology*; D038524:Diffusion Magnetic Resonance Imaging / Q000379:methods*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007091:Image Processing, Computer-Assisted / Q000379:methods; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D012559:Schizophrenia / Q000175:diagnosis*; D013223:Statistics as Topic