Fluid-attenuated inversion-recovery MR imaging in schizophrenia-associated with idiopathic unconjugated hyperbilirubinemia (Gilbert's syndrome).
BACKGROUND
Patients with schizophrenia show a significantly higher frequency of hyperbilirubinemia the patients suffering from other psychiatric disorders and the general healthy population. The objective of the current study was to determine whether patients with schizophrenia-associated idiopathic unconjugated hyperbilirubinemia (Gilbert's syndrome, GS) have specific changes in signal intensities on fluid-attenuated inversion-recovery (FLAIR) magnetic resonance (MR) images.


METHODS
Axial 5-mm-thick FLAIR MR images from schizophrenia patients with GS (n=18) and schizophrenia patients without GS (n=18), all diagnosed according to DSM-IV criteria, were compared with age- and sex-matched non-psychiatric controls (n=18). Signal intensities in the hippocampus, amygdala, caudate, putamen, thalamus, cingulate gyrus, and insula were graded relative to cortical signal intensity in the frontal lobe.


RESULTS
Compared to both schizophrenia patients without GS and normal controls, the schizophrenia patients with GS showed significantly increased signal intensities in almost all regions studied.


CONCLUSIONS
Patients with schizophrenia-associated GS have specific changes of signal intensities on FLAIR MR images, suggesting that schizophrenia with GS produces changes in the fronto-temporal cortex, limbic system, and basal ganglia.
Miyaoka
Tsuyoshi
T
Department of Psychiatry, Shimane University School of Medicine, 89-1 Enyacho, Izumo 693-8501, Japan. miyanyan@med.shimane-u.ac.jp
Yasukawa
Rei
R
Mihara
Takumi
T
Mizuno
Shoichi
S
Yasuda
Hideaki
H
Sukegawa
Tsuruhei
T
Hayashida
Maiko
M
Inagaki
Takuji
T
Horiguchi
Jun
J
D000328:Adult; D001479:Basal Ganglia / Q000473:pathology; D001921:Brain / Q000473:pathology*; D005260:Female; D005625:Frontal Lobe / Q000473:pathology; D005878:Gilbert Disease / Q000175:diagnosis*; D006801:Humans; D007089:Image Enhancement; D007091:Image Processing, Computer-Assisted; D008032:Limbic System / Q000473:pathology; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D012016:Reference Values; D012559:Schizophrenia / Q000175:diagnosis*; D013702:Temporal Lobe / Q000473:pathology