title: Pseudo-continuous arterial spin labeling MRI study of schizophrenic patients.
abstract: Arterial spin labeling (ASL) magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) is a novel noninvasive technique that can measure regional cerebral blood flow (rCBF). To our knowledge, few studies have examined rCBF in patients with schizophrenia by ASL-MRI. Here we used pseudo-continuous ASL (pCASL) to examine the structural and functional imaging data in schizophrenic patients, taking the regional cerebral gray matter volume into account. The subjects were 36 patients with schizophrenia and 42 healthy volunteers who underwent 3-tesla MRI, diffusion tensor imaging (DTI), and pCASL. We evaluated the gray matter volume imaging, DTI, and pCASL imaging data in a voxel-by-voxel statistical analysis. The schizophrenia patients showed reduced rCBF in the left prefrontal and bilateral occipital cortices compared to the healthy volunteers. There was a significant reduction of gray matter volume in the left inferior frontal cortex in the schizophrenia patients. With respect to the fractional anisotropy (FA) values in the DTI, there were significant FA reductions in the left superior temporal, left external capsule, and left inferior prefrontal regions in the patients compared to the controls.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Our pCASL study with partial volume effect correction together with volumetry and DTI data demonstrated hypoactivity in the left prefrontal area beyond structural abnormalities in schizophrenia patients. There were also hypofunction areas in bilateral occipital cortices, although structural abnormalities were not apparent.
authors.affiliation: Department of Mental Disorder Research, National Institute of Neuroscience, National Center of Neurology and Psychiatry, 4-1-1, Ogawa-Higashi, Kodaira, Tokyo 187-8502, Japan. Electronic address: ota@ncnp.go.jp.
authors.forename: Miho
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Ota
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry, National Center of Neurology and Psychiatry, 4-1-1, Ogawa-Higashi, Kodaira, Tokyo 187-8502, Japan.
authors.forename: Masanori
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Ishikawa
authors.affiliation: Department of Radiology, National Center of Neurology and Psychiatry, 4-1-1, Ogawa-Higashi, Kodaira, Tokyo 187-8502, Japan.
authors.forename: Noriko
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Sato
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry, National Center of Neurology and Psychiatry, 4-1-1, Ogawa-Higashi, Kodaira, Tokyo 187-8502, Japan.
authors.forename: Mitsutoshi
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Okazaki
authors.affiliation: Department of Imaging Neuroinformatics, Integrative Brain Imaging Center, National Center of Neurology and Psychiatry, 4-1-1, Ogawa-Higashi, Kodaira, Tokyo 187-8502, Japan.
authors.forename: Norihide
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Maikusa
authors.affiliation: Department of Mental Disorder Research, National Institute of Neuroscience, National Center of Neurology and Psychiatry, 4-1-1, Ogawa-Higashi, Kodaira, Tokyo 187-8502, Japan.
authors.forename: Hiroaki
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Hori
authors.affiliation: Department of Mental Disorder Research, National Institute of Neuroscience, National Center of Neurology and Psychiatry, 4-1-1, Ogawa-Higashi, Kodaira, Tokyo 187-8502, Japan.
authors.forename: Kotaro
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Hattori
authors.affiliation: Department of Mental Disorder Research, National Institute of Neuroscience, National Center of Neurology and Psychiatry, 4-1-1, Ogawa-Higashi, Kodaira, Tokyo 187-8502, Japan.
authors.forename: Toshiya
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Teraishi
authors.affiliation: Department of Radiology, National Center of Neurology and Psychiatry, 4-1-1, Ogawa-Higashi, Kodaira, Tokyo 187-8502, Japan.
authors.forename: Kimiteru
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Ito
authors.affiliation: Department of Mental Disorder Research, National Institute of Neuroscience, National Center of Neurology and Psychiatry, 4-1-1, Ogawa-Higashi, Kodaira, Tokyo 187-8502, Japan.
authors.forename: Hiroshi
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Kunugi
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D016880:Anisotropy; D001921:Brain / Q000473:pathology* / Q000503:physiopathology*; D001931:Brain Mapping; D002560:Cerebrovascular Circulation / Q000502:physiology*; D056324:Diffusion Tensor Imaging; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging / Q000379:methods; D008297:Male; D036421:Nerve Fibers, Unmyelinated / Q000473:pathology / Q000502:physiology; D009929:Organ Size; D011569:Psychiatric Status Rating Scales; D012559:Schizophrenia / Q000473:pathology* / Q000503:physiopathology*
keywords: Biological parametric mapping; Cerebral blood flow; Diffeomorphic anatomical registration using exponentiated Lie algebra; Pseudo-continuous arterial spin labeling; Schizophrenia; Tract-based spatial statistics