title: Progression of white matter degeneration in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis: A diffusion tensor imaging study.
abstract: Whether longitudinal diffusion tensor MRI imaging (DTI) can capture disease progression in patients with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) is unclear. The primary goal of this study was to determine if DTI detects progression of the corticospinal tracts (CST) degeneration in ALS. Seventeen ALS patients and 19 age- and gender-matched healthy controls were scanned with DTI at baseline for cross-sectional analyses. For longitudinal analyses, the ALS patients had repeat DTI scans after eight months. Tractography of the CST was used to guide regions-of-interest (ROI) analysis and complemented by a voxelwise analysis. Cross-sectional study found that baseline FA of the right superior CST was markedly reduced in ALS patients compared to controls. The FA reductions in this region correlated with the disease severity in ALS patients. Longitudinal study found that FA change rate of the right superior CST significantly declined over time. In conclusion, longitudinal DTI study captures progression of upper motor fiber degeneration in ALS. DTI can be useful for monitoring ALS progression and efficacy of treatment interventions.
authors: Center for Imaging of Neurodegenerative Diseases, Veterans Affairs Medical Center, San Francisco, CA, USA. Yu.Zhang@ucsf.edu
authors: Yu
authors: Y
authors: Zhang
authors: Norbert
authors: N
authors: Schuff
authors: Susan C
authors: SC
authors: Woolley
authors: Gloria C
authors: GC
authors: Chiang
authors: Lauren
authors: L
authors: Boreta
authors: Joel
authors: J
authors: Laxamana
authors: Jonathan S
authors: JS
authors: Katz
authors: Michael W
authors: MW
authors: Weiner
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D000690:Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis / Q000473:pathology* / Q000503:physiopathology*; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D056324:Diffusion Tensor Imaging / Q000379:methods*; D018450:Disease Progression; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008137:Longitudinal Studies; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009410:Nerve Degeneration / Q000473:pathology* / Q000503:physiopathology; D009413:Nerve Fibers, Myelinated / Q000473:pathology*; D011712:Pyramidal Tracts / Q000473:pathology