Diffusion tensor MR imaging evaluation of the corpus callosum of patients with multiple sclerosis.
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.
Rueda
Fernanda
F
Department of Radiology, Serviço de Radiodiagnóstico, Hospital Universitário Clementino Fraga Filho, Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro, Rio de Janeiro, RJ, Brazil.
Hygino
Luiz Celso
LC
Domingues
Romeu Cortês
RC
Vasconcelos
Cláudia C
CC
Papais-Alvarenga
Regina M
RM
Gasparetto
Emerson L
EL
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