title: Early microstructural white matter changes in patients with HIV: a diffusion tensor imaging study.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Previous studies have reported white matter (WM) brain alterations in asymptomatic patients with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV).
  
  
  METHODS
  We compared diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) derived WM fractional anisotropy (FA) between HIV-patients with and without mild macroscopic brain lesions determined using standard magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). We furthermore investigated whether WM alterations co-occurred with neurocognitive deficits and depression. We performed structural MRI and DTI for 19 patients and 19 age-matched healthy controls. Regionally-specific WM integrity was investigated using voxel-based statistics of whole-brain FA maps and region-of-interest analysis. Each patient underwent laboratory and neuropsychological tests.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Structural MRI revealed no lesions in twelve (HIV-MRN) and unspecific mild macrostructural lesions in seven patients (HIV-MRL). Both analyses revealed widespread FA-alterations in all patients. Patients with HIV-MRL had FA-alterations primarily adjacent to the observed lesions and, whilst reduced in extent, patients with HIV-MRN also exhibited FA-alterations in similar regions. Patients with evidence of depression showed FA-increase in the ventral tegmental area, pallidum and nucleus accumbens in both hemispheres, and patients with evidence of HIV-associated neurocognitive disorder showed widespread FA-reduction.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  These results show that patients with HIV-MRN have evidence of FA-alterations in similar regions that are lesioned in HIV-MRL patients, suggesting common neuropathological processes. Furthermore, they suggest a biological rather than a reactive origin of depression in HIV-patients.
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurology, University of M uumlnster, Albert-Schweitzer-Campus, Germany. dragerb@uni-muenster.de
authors.forename: Bianca
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Stubbe-Drger
authors.forename: Michael
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Deppe
authors.forename: Siawoosh
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Mohammadi
authors.forename: Simon S
authors.initials: SS
authors.lastname: Keller
authors.forename: Harald
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Kugel
authors.forename: Nora
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Gregor
authors.forename: Stefan
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Evers
authors.forename: Peter
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Young
authors.forename: E-Bernd
authors.initials: EB
authors.lastname: Ringelstein
authors.forename: Gabriele
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Arendt
authors.forename: Stefan
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Knecht
authors.forename: Ingo W
authors.initials: IW
authors.lastname: Husstedt
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D001921:Brain / Q000473:pathology*; D003072:Cognition Disorders / Q000209:etiology / Q000473:pathology*; D003863:Depression / Q000209:etiology / Q000473:pathology*; D056324:Diffusion Tensor Imaging / Q000379:methods*; D005260:Female; D015658:HIV Infections / Q000150:complications / Q000473:pathology*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009413:Nerve Fibers, Myelinated / Q000473:pathology*; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity; D055815:Young Adult