title: Anti-basal ganglia antibodies and Tourette's syndrome: a voxel-based morphometry and diffusion tensor imaging study in an adult population.
abstract: Anti-basal ganglia antibodies (ABGAs) have been suggested to be a hallmark of autoimmunity in Gilles de la Tourette's syndrome (GTS), possibly related to prior exposure to streptococcal infection. In order to detect whether the presence of ABGAs was associated with subtle structural changes in GTS, whole-brain analysis using independent sets of T(1) and diffusion tensor imaging MRI-based methods were performed on 22 adults with GTS with (n = 9) and without (n = 13) detectable ABGAs in the serum. Voxel-based morphometry analysis failed to detect any significant difference in grey matter density between ABGA-positive and ABGA-negative groups in caudate nuclei, putamina, thalami and frontal lobes. These results suggest that ABGA synthesis is not related to structural changes in grey and white matter (detectable with these methods) within frontostriatal circuits.
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurological and Psychiatric Sciences, University of Bari, Piazza Giulio Cesare 11, I-70124 Bari, Italy. davidemartino@virgilio.it
authors.forename: D
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Martino
authors.forename: B
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Draganski
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Cavanna
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Church
authors.forename: G
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Defazio
authors.forename: M M
authors.initials: MM
authors.lastname: Robertson
authors.forename: R S J
authors.initials: RS
authors.lastname: Frackowiak
authors.forename: G
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Giovannoni
authors.forename: H D
authors.initials: HD
authors.lastname: Critchley
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D016880:Anisotropy; D001323:Autoantibodies / Q000097:blood*; D001479:Basal Ganglia / Q000276:immunology* / Q000473:pathology; D016022:Case-Control Studies; D038524:Diffusion Magnetic Resonance Imaging; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D012720:Severity of Illness Index; D013788:Thalamus / Q000473:pathology; D005879:Tourette Syndrome / Q000097:blood* / Q000276:immunology / Q000473:pathology*
chemical_list: D001323:Autoantibodies