Quantitative analysis of white matter on DTI images of patients with tinnitus: preliminary report.
Tinnitus is defined as an unwanted auditory perception of internal origin, usually localized, and rarely heard by others. Persisting appearances of tinnitus are most commonly combined with diseases or damage in the inner ear or neuro-auditory pathway. Diffusion tensor magnetic resonance imaging (DTI) is a new imaging method with the capability of providing non-invasive information on tissue microstructure not available in routine clinical MRI images. Since white matter regions of the brain are an ordered structure due to the myelination and directionality of axons and have a high degree of anisotropy, the ability to detect changes in anisotropy can be extremely useful in the study of diseases such as tinnitus and multiple sclerosis, which are assumed to involve the demyelination of axons. While several studies investigated tinnitus using MRI, few studies tried to analyze neurological disorders quantitatively using DTI. In this study, the cerebral volume of white matter on DTI images of patients with tinnitus was measured using the semi-automated and intuitive menu based image processing tool (Human Analyzer, ETRI, Korea). Total number of ten patients with tinnitus including three women was examined.
Yoo
Done-Sik
DS
IT-BT Group, Electron. & Telecommun. Res. Inst., Daejeon, Korea.
Choi
Woo Young
WY
Lee
Soo Yeol
SY
Jeong
Ji-Wook
JW
Lee
Jeong Won
JW
Kim
Seunghwan
S
Chang
Yongmin
Y
D000328:Adult; D000465:Algorithms; D001921:Brain / Q000473:pathology*; D003711:Demyelinating Diseases / Q000209:etiology / Q000473:pathology*; D038524:Diffusion Magnetic Resonance Imaging / Q000379:methods*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007089:Image Enhancement / Q000379:methods; D007090:Image Interpretation, Computer-Assisted / Q000379:methods*; D021621:Imaging, Three-Dimensional / Q000379:methods*; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009413:Nerve Fibers, Myelinated / Q000473:pathology*; D010865:Pilot Projects; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity; D014012:Tinnitus / Q000150:complications / Q000473:pathology*