title: Diffusion tensor MR imaging evaluation of the corpus callosum of patients with multiple sclerosis.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To evaluate the fractional anisotropy (FA) values of the normal-appearing white matter of the corpus callosum (CC) in patients with relapsing-remitting multiple sclerosis (MS).
  
  
  METHODS
  Fifty-seven patients with diagnosis of relapsing-remitting MS and 47 age- and gender-matched controls were studied. A conventional MR imaging protocol and a DTI sequence were performed. One neuroradiologist placed the regions of interest (ROIs) in the FA maps in five different portions of the normal-appearing CC (rostrum, genu, anterior and posterior portion of the body and splenium) in all cases. The statistical analysis was performed with the Mann-Whitney U test and p<0.05 was considered statistically significant.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The FA values were lower in the MS patients compared with the controls (p<0.05) in the following CC regions: rostrum (0.720 vs 0.819), anterior body (0.698 vs 0.752), posterior body (0.711 vs 0.759) and splenium (0.720 vs 0.880).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  In this series, there was a robust decrease in the FA in all regions of the normal-appearing CC, being significant in the rostrum, body and splenium. This finding suggests that there is a subtle and diffuse abnormality in the CC, which could be probably related to myelin content loss, axonal damage and gliosis.
authors.affiliation: Department of Radiology, Serviço de Radiodiagnóstico, Hospital Universitário Clementino Fraga Filho, Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro, Rio de Janeiro, RJ, Brazil.
authors.forename: Fernanda
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Rueda
authors.forename: Luiz Celso
authors.initials: LC
authors.lastname: Hygino
authors.forename: Romeu Cortês
authors.initials: RC
authors.lastname: Domingues
authors.forename: Cláudia C
authors.initials: CC
authors.lastname: Vasconcelos
authors.forename: Regina M
authors.initials: RM
authors.lastname: Papais-Alvarenga
authors.forename: Emerson L
authors.initials: EL
authors.lastname: Gasparetto
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D016880:Anisotropy; D001931:Brain Mapping; D016022:Case-Control Studies; D003337:Corpus Callosum / Q000473:pathology*; D038524:Diffusion Magnetic Resonance Imaging / Q000379:methods* / Q000592:standards; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D020529:Multiple Sclerosis, Relapsing-Remitting / Q000473:pathology*; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D018709:Statistics, Nonparametric