title: Progressive changes of white matter integrity in schizophrenia revealed by diffusion tensor imaging.
abstract: Recent magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) studies using diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) have suggested reduced fractional anisotropy (FA) in the white matter (WM) of the brain in patients with schizophrenia. We tried to examine whether such reduction in FA exists and whether such changes in FA progress in an age-dependent manner in a Japanese sample of chronic schizophrenia. FA values were compared between 42 patients with chronic schizophrenia and 42 controls matched for age and gender, by using DTI with voxel-by-voxel and region-of-interest analyses. Correlations of FA values with age and duration of illness were examined. Patients with schizophrenia showed lower FA values, compared to controls, in the widespread WM areas including the uncinate fasciculi and cingulum bundles. A significant group-by-age interaction was found for FA in the WM, i.e., age-related reduction of FA was more pronounced in schizophrenics than in controls. A significant negative correlation between FA and duration of illness was also found in the WM. Our data confirmed decreased FA in schizophrenics, compared to controls in the widespread WM areas. Such decreased FA values in schizophrenia might be attributable, at least in part, to progressive changes after the onset of the illness.
authors.affiliation: Department of Radiology, National Center Hospital for Mental, Nervous, and Muscular Disorders, National Center of Neurology and Psychiatry, 4-1-1 Ogawa Higashi, Kodaira City, Tokyo, 187-8551, Japan.
authors.forename: Takeyuki
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Mori
authors.forename: Takashi
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Ohnishi
authors.forename: Ryota
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Hashimoto
authors.forename: Kiyotaka
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Nemoto
authors.forename: Yoshiya
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Moriguchi
authors.forename: Hiroko
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Noguchi
authors.forename: Tetsuo
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Nakabayashi
authors.forename: Hiroaki
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Hori
authors.forename: Seichi
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Harada
authors.forename: Osamu
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: Saitoh
authors.forename: Hiroshi
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Matsuda
authors.forename: Hiroshi
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Kunugi
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000375:Aging / Q000502:physiology; D016880:Anisotropy; D001921:Brain / Q000473:pathology* / Q000503:physiopathology*; D002908:Chronic Disease; D039721:Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders; D038524:Diffusion Magnetic Resonance Imaging / Q000379:methods*; D018450:Disease Progression; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D012559:Schizophrenia / Q000473:pathology* / Q000503:physiopathology*; D012720:Severity of Illness Index