title: Brain morphological alterations and cellular metabolic changes in patients with generalized anxiety disorder: A combined DARTEL-based VBM and (1)H-MRS study.
abstract: Generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) is characterized by emotional dysregulation and cognitive deficit in conjunction with brain morphometric and metabolic alterations. This study assessed the combined neural morphological deficits and metabolic abnormality in patients with GAD. Thirteen patients with GAD and 13 healthy controls matched for age, sex, and education level underwent high-resolution T1-weighted MRI and proton magnetic resonance spectroscopy ((1)H-MRS) at 3Tesla. In this study, the combination of voxel-based morphometry (VBM) and (1)H-MRS was used to assess the brain morphometric and metabolic alterations in GAD. The patients showed significantly reduced white matter (WM) volumes in the midbrain (MB), precentral gyrus (PrG), dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) and anterior limb of the internal capsule (ALIC) compared to the controls. In MRS study, the choline/creatine (Cho/Cr) and choline/N-acetylaspartate (Cho/NAA) ratios in the DLPFC were significantly lower in the patients. Particularly, the WM volume variation of the DLPFC was positively correlated with both of the Cho/Cr and Cho/NAA ratios in patients with GAD. This study provides an evidence for the association between the morphometric deficit and metabolic changes in GAD. This finding would be helpful to understand the neural dysfunction and pathogenesis in connection with cognitive impairments in GAD.
authors.affiliation: Research Institute for Medical Imaging, Chonnam National University Hospital, Gwangju, Republic of Korea.
authors.forename: Chung-Man
authors.initials: CM
authors.lastname: Moon
authors.affiliation: Research Institute for Medical Imaging, Chonnam National University Hospital, Gwangju, Republic of Korea; Department of Radiology, Chonnam National University Hospital, Chonnam National University Medical School, Gwangju, Republic of Korea. Electronic address: gwjeong@jnu.ac.kr.
authors.forename: Gwang-Woo
authors.initials: GW
authors.lastname: Jeong
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D001008:Anxiety Disorders / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging* / Q000378:metabolism / Q000473:pathology; D001224:Aspartic Acid / Q000031:analogs & derivatives* / Q000378:metabolism; D001921:Brain / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging / Q000378:metabolism / Q000473:pathology*; D016022:Case-Control Studies; D002794:Choline / Q000378:metabolism*; D003401:Creatine / Q000378:metabolism*; D005260:Female; D005625:Frontal Lobe / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging / Q000473:pathology; D006801:Humans; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging; D008297:Male; D009929:Organ Size; D017397:Prefrontal Cortex / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging / Q000473:pathology; D066244:Proton Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy; D066127:White Matter / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging / Q000473:pathology
chemical_list: D001224:Aspartic Acid; C000179:N-acetylaspartate; D003401:Creatine; D002794:Choline
keywords: Diffeomorphic anatomical registration through exponentiated Lie algebra (DARTEL); Generalized anxiety disorder (GAD); Proton magnetic resonance spectroscopy ((1)H-MRS); Voxel-based morphometry (VBM)