title: Quantitative MR analysis of caudate abnormalities in pediatric ADHD: proposal for a diagnostic test.
abstract: Most morphometric magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) studies of pediatric attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) with appropriate sample sizes reveal a decreased right caudate nucleus volume. Recently, our group reported that this decrease is mainly due to a diminished right caudate body volume (rCBV). Here, we hypothesize that, employing either the total bilateral caudate volume (tbCV) or the bilateral caudate body volume (bCBV) as scaling variables, the rCBV/tbCV and rCBV/bCBV ratios could be found diminished and used as a basis of an imaging diagnostic test. Volumetric caudate nucleus data were obtained from a case-control morphometric MRI study with 39 ADHD subjects and 39 handedness- and IQ-matched controls, using a novel semi-automated caudate segmentation procedure. Student t-tests comparing each relevant ratio were conducted between the two samples. After splitting the samples into two groups, a receiving operator characteristic (ROC) analysis was conducted on the training group to determine the optimal cut-off. Its performance was then examined on the test group. The rCBV/bCBV ratio was found to be statistically different. For a value equal or inferior to 0.48, the specificity was 95.00%. We propose using the rCBV/bCBV ratio to assist in the diagnosis of ADHD in children.
authors.affiliation: Unitat de Recerca en Neurociència Cognitiva (URNC), Department of Psychiatry, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (UAB), Spain. 24744jsv@comb.es
authors.forename: Joan Carles
authors.initials: JC
authors.lastname: Soliva
authors.forename: Jordi
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Fauquet
authors.forename: Anna
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Bielsa
authors.forename: Mariana
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Rovira
authors.forename: Susanna
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Carmona
authors.forename: Josep Antoni
authors.initials: JA
authors.lastname: Ramos-Quiroga
authors.forename: Joseph
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Hilferty
authors.forename: Antoni
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Bulbena
authors.forename: Miquel
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Casas
authors.forename: Oscar
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: Vilarroya
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000704:Analysis of Variance; D019540:Area Under Curve; D001289:Attention Deficit Disorder with Hyperactivity / Q000175:diagnosis*; D001931:Brain Mapping; D002421:Caudate Nucleus / Q000473:pathology*; D002648:Child; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging / Q000379:methods*; D008297:Male; D010372:Pediatrics; D012372:ROC Curve