Frontal corpus callosum alterations in progressive supranuclear palsy but not in Parkinson's disease.
BACKGROUND
Frontal lobe involvement is considered a clinical and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) feature in later stages of progressive supranuclear palsy (PSP).


OBJECTIVE
Diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) was used to investigate the integrity of frontal pathways in PSP and Parkinson's disease (PD) patients.


METHODS
DTI and 3-D MRI were performed in 15 PSP patients (parkinsonism subtype: n = 8; Richardson subtype: n = 7), 15 PD patients, and 18 matched controls. DTI analysis was performed in order to identify differences along frontal white matter structures including the corpus callosum (CC) and was complemented by atlas-based volumetry and planimetry.


RESULTS
Significantly reduced regional fractional anisotropy was observed for PSP patients versus controls and PSP versus PD patients, respectively, in frontal areas including the area II of the CC and bilaterally in the callosal radiation. The DTI findings correlated with frontal lobe volumes. These differences were not observed between PD patients and controls.


CONCLUSIONS
DTI identified a PSP-associated microstructural alteration pattern in the frontal lobes and in the CC area II including the corresponding bilateral callosal radiation tracts that could not be identified in both control samples, supporting the prominent PSP-associated frontal involvement as a potential neuroimaging marker.
Department of Neurology, University of Ulm, Ulm, Germany.
Johannes
J
Rosskopf
Hans-Peter
HP
Müller
Hans-Jürgen
HJ
Huppertz
Albert C
AC
Ludolph
Elmar H
EH
Pinkhardt
Jan
J
Kassubek
D000368:Aged; D003337:Corpus Callosum / Q000473:pathology*; D056324:Diffusion Tensor Imaging; D005260:Female; D005625:Frontal Lobe / Q000473:pathology*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009434:Neural Pathways / Q000473:pathology; D010300:Parkinson Disease / Q000473:pathology*; D013494:Supranuclear Palsy, Progressive / Q000473:pathology*