Cerebral asymmetry in patients with schizophrenia: A voxel-based morphometry (VBM) and diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) study

✍ Scribed by Hidemasa Takao; Osamu Abe; Hidenori Yamasue; Shigeki Aoki; Kiyoto Kasai; Kuni Ohtomo

• Publisher: John Wiley and Sons
• Year: 2009
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 318 KB
• Volume: 31
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 1053-1807
• DOI: 10.1002/jmri.22017

✦ Synopsis

Abstract

Purpose:

To evaluate the differences in gray‐ and white‐matter asymmetry between schizophrenia patients and normal subjects.

Materials and Methods:

Forty‐eight right‐handed patients with chronic schizophrenia (24 males and 24 females) and 48 right‐handed age‐ and sex‐matched healthy controls (24 males and 24 females) were included in this study. The effects of diagnosis on gray‐matter volume asymmetry and white‐matter fractional anisotropy (FA) asymmetry were evaluated with use of voxel‐based morphometry (VBM) and voxel‐based analysis of FA maps derived from diffusion tensor imaging (DTI), respectively.

Results:

The mean gray‐ and white‐matter volumes were significantly smaller in the schizophrenia group than in the control group. The voxel‐based morphometry (VBM) showed no significant effect of diagnosis on gray‐matter volume asymmetry. The voxel‐based analysis of DTI also showed no significant effect of diagnosis on white‐matter FA asymmetry.

Conclusion:

Our results of voxel‐based analyses showed no significant differences in either gray‐matter volume asymmetry or white‐matter FA asymmetry between schizophrenia patients and normal subjects. J. Magn. Reson. Imaging 2010;31:221–226. © 2009 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.