Early pathological changes in the cerebellum of patients with pure cerebellar syndrome demonstrated by diffusion-tensor imaging.
We evaluated the early pathological changes in patients with sporadic cerebellar ataxia by measuring fractional anisotropy (FA) values in diffusion tensor MRIs (DTI). FA and apparent diffusion coefficient (ADC) values were compared in the brain stem and cerebellum of 5 patients with idiopathic cerebellar ataxia-C and 7 age-matched controls. Patients with sporadic cerebellar ataxia had decreased FA values in the bilateral cerebellar peduncle and cerebellar hemisphere, but normal FA values in the basis pontes. Assuming that the loss in FA parallels neuronal changes, our results suggest that the derangement and altered fiber integrity of the cerebellum are present regardless of the presence of morphological alterations on conventional MRI. Therefore, DTI may be superior to conventional MRI in the evaluation of early pathological changes in patients with sporadic cerebellar ataxia.
Yoon
Bora
B
Department of Neurology, Catholic University of Korea College of Medicine, Hangnam St. Mary's Hospital, 505 Banpo-dong, Seocho-gu, Seoul 137-701, Korea.
Kim
Joong-Seok
JS
Lee
Kwang-Soo
KS
Kim
Bum-Soo
BS
Chung
So-Ryoung
SR
Kim
Yeong-In
YI
D000328:Adult; D001931:Brain Mapping; D001933:Brain Stem / Q000473:pathology; D002524:Cerebellar Ataxia / Q000473:pathology*; D002526:Cerebellar Diseases / Q000473:pathology*; D002531:Cerebellum / Q000473:pathology; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D012016:Reference Values