Diffusion tensor MR imaging evaluation of the corpus callosum of patients with multiple sclerosis

Fernanda Rueda, Luiz Celso Hygino Jr, Romeu Cortês Domingues, Cláudia C. Vasconcelos, Regina M. Papais-Alvarenga, Emerson L. Gasparetto
2008 Arquivos de Neuro-Psiquiatria  
OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the fractional anisotropy (FA) values of the normal-appearing white matter of the corpus callosum (CC) in patients with relapsing-remitting multiple sclerosis (MS). METHOD: Fifty-seven patients with diagnosis of relapsing-remitting MS and 47 age- and gender-matched controls were studied. A conventional MR imaging protocol and a DTI sequence were performed. One neuroradiologist placed the regions of interest (ROIs) in the FA maps in five different portions of the
more » ... aring CC (rostrum, genu, anterior and posterior portion of the body and splenium) in all cases. The statistical analysis was performed with the Mann-Whitney U test and p<0.05 was considered statistically significant. RESULTS: The FA values were lower in the MS patients compared with the controls (p<0.05) in the following CC regions: rostrum (0.720 vs 0.819), anterior body (0.698 vs 0.752), posterior body (0.711 vs 0.759) and splenium (0.720 vs 0.880). CONCLUSION: In this series, there was a robust decrease in the FA in all regions of the normal-appearing CC, being significant in the rostrum, body and splenium. This finding suggests that there is a subtle and diffuse abnormality in the CC, which could be probably related to myelin content loss, axonal damage and gliosis.
doi:10.1590/s0004-282x2008000400001 pmid:18813697 fatcat:3fz42snvtnfrfmhpr3qj4nqnqm