title: White matter differences between multiple system atrophy (parkinsonian type) and Parkinson's disease: A diffusion tensor image study.
abstract: The clinical differential diagnosis between the Parkinson variant of multiple system atrophy (MSA-P) and Parkinson's disease (PD) is difficult in early stages. To identify objective markers for differential diagnosis, we combined the novel tract-based spatial statistics (TBSS) and region of interest (ROI) analyses for the first time to investigate three groups (15 MSA-P, 20 PD patients and 20 controls) with diffusion tensor imaging data. By TBSS, we performed pairwise comparisons of fractional anisotropy (FA), mean diffusivity, radial diffusivity (RD) and axial diffusivity maps. The clusters with significant differences between MSA-P and PD were used as ROIs for further analyses. FA/RD values in bilateral corticospinal tract (CST) and left anterior thalamic radiation (ATR) in MSA-P were significantly different from PD or controls, and significantly correlated with clinical data. These findings indicated that the abnormalities of left ATR and bilateral CST were specific for MSA-P relative to PD or controls, and seemed to be promising for differential diagnosis. Furthermore, it may be useful for severity assessment of MSA-P.
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurology, Nanjing Brain Hospital, Nanjing Medical University, No. 264 Guangzhou Road, Nanjing 210029, PR China.
authors.forename: L
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Ji
authors.affiliation: Division of Developmental Medicine, Department of Medicine, Boston Children's Hospital, 300 Longwood Avenue, Boston, MA 02115, United States.
authors.forename: Y
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurology, Nanjing Brain Hospital, Nanjing Medical University, No. 264 Guangzhou Road, Nanjing 210029, PR China.
authors.forename: D
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Zhu
authors.affiliation: Department of Radiology, Nanjing Brain Hospital, Nanjing Medical University, No. 264 Guangzhou Road, Nanjing 210029, PR China.
authors.forename: W
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurology, Nanjing Brain Hospital, Nanjing Medical University, No. 264 Guangzhou Road, Nanjing 210029, PR China; Department of Neurology, School of Medicine, Nanjing University, No. 22 Hankou Road, Nanjing 210093, PR China. Electronic address: profshijp@163.com.
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Shi
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D016022:Case-Control Studies; D056324:Diffusion Tensor Imaging / Q000379:methods*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007091:Image Processing, Computer-Assisted; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D019578:Multiple System Atrophy / Q000473:pathology*; D010300:Parkinson Disease / Q000473:pathology*; D011569:Psychiatric Status Rating Scales; D011712:Pyramidal Tracts / Q000473:pathology; D018709:Statistics, Nonparametric; D013788:Thalamus; D066127:White Matter / Q000473:pathology*
keywords: Parkinson’s disease; diffusion tensor imaging; multiple system atrophy; region of interest; tract-based spatial statistic