title: Cerebral white matter damage in frontotemporal dementia assessed by diffusion tensor tractography.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  We used diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) to study white matter integrity in patients with frontotemporal dementia (FTD).
  
  
  METHODS
  The subjects comprised 20 patients (9 men, 11 women) with FTD and 17 age-matched healthy controls (9 men, 8 women). Based on the data obtained from DTI, we performed tractography of the major cerebral pathways, including the pyramidal tracts, genu and splenium of the corpus callosum (CC), bilateral arcuate fasciculi (AF), inferior longitudinal fasciculi (ILF) and uncinate fasciculi (UF). We measured the values of fractional anisotropy (FA) in each fiber and statistically compared the findings in patients with those in controls.
  
  
  RESULTS
  We found a significant decrease in FA values in the selected association fibers as well as anterior fibers of the CC in the patients with FTD. The greatest decrease in mean FA of the UF was seen in advanced FTD. On the other hand, there were no significant differences in FA in the bilateral pyramidal tracts.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The features of FTD from the view point of cerebral white matter damage were revealed by tractography based on DTI. DTI is therefore considered to be a useful method, and may provide clues to elucidating the pathogenesis of FTD.
authors: Department of Neurology, Graduate School of Medical Science, Kyoto Prefectural University of Medicine, Kyoto, Japan.
authors: Koushun
authors: K
authors: Matsuo
authors: Toshiki
authors: T
authors: Mizuno
authors: Kei
authors: K
authors: Yamada
authors: Kentaro
authors: K
authors: Akazawa
authors: Takashi
authors: T
authors: Kasai
authors: Masaki
authors: M
authors: Kondo
authors: Satoru
authors: S
authors: Mori
authors: Tsunehiko
authors: T
authors: Nishimura
authors: Masanori
authors: M
authors: Nakagawa
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D016880:Anisotropy; D002540:Cerebral Cortex / Q000473:pathology*; D003337:Corpus Callosum / Q000473:pathology*; D003704:Dementia / Q000473:pathology* / Q000523:psychology; D038524:Diffusion Magnetic Resonance Imaging; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D021621:Imaging, Three-Dimensional; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009434:Neural Pathways / Q000473:pathology*; D011237:Predictive Value of Tests