title: Injury of the mammillothalamic tract in patients with subarachnoid haemorrhage: a retrospective diffusion tensor imaging study.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Few studies have reported on injury of the mammillothalamic tract (MTT) in patients with stroke. However, no study in patients with subarachnoid haemorrhage (SAH) has been reported. Using diffusion tensor tractography, we attempted to investigate injury of the MTT in patients with SAH.
  
  
  METHODS
  We recruited 16 patients with SAH and 15 control participants. DTI was obtained at 5.7±1.5 weeks after onset and reconstruction of the MTT was performed using the probabilistic tractography method. The fractional anisotropy (FA) value and tract number of the MTT and the Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE) score were determined. Values of FA and tract volume showing a decrement of more than two SDs that of normal control were defined as abnormal.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The FA value and tract volume in the patient group were significantly lower than those in the control group (p<0.05). In addition, MMSE showed strong (r=0.67, p=0.005) positive correlation with tract volume without correlation with FA. In the individual analysis, 16 MTTs of 32 MTTs in 16 patients showed abnormalities of the MTT in terms of the FA value, the tract volume or the presence of a reconstructed MTT. As a result, 10 (62.5%) of 16 patients showed abnormality of the MTT in at least one hemisphere.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  We found that patients with SAH showed injury of the MTT and this injury showed correlation with cognitive dysfunction.
authors: Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, College of Medicine, Yeungnam University, Daegu, Republic of Korea.
authors: Sung Ho
authors: SH
authors: Jang
authors: Department of Neurosurgery, College of Medicine, Yeungnam University, Daegu, Republic of Korea.
authors: Byung Yeon
authors: BY
authors: Choi
authors: Department of Neurosurgery, College of Medicine, Yeungnam University, Daegu, Republic of Korea.
authors: Seong Ho
authors: SH
authors: Kim
authors: Department of Neurosurgery, College of Medicine, Yeungnam University, Daegu, Republic of Korea.
authors: Chul Hoon
authors: CH
authors: Chang
authors: Department of Neurosurgery, College of Medicine, Yeungnam University, Daegu, Republic of Korea.
authors: Young Jin
authors: YJ
authors: Jung
authors: Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, College of Medicine, Yeungnam University, Daegu, Republic of Korea.
authors: Hyeok Gyu
authors: HG
authors: Kwon
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D056324:Diffusion Tensor Imaging; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008326:Mammillary Bodies / Q000473:pathology*; D008875:Middle Aged; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D013345:Subarachnoid Hemorrhage / Q000473:pathology*; D013787:Thalamic Nuclei / Q000473:pathology*
keywords: REHABILITATION MEDICINE