Diffusion Tensor Imaging Study In First-episode And Chronic Schizophrenia Patients

Background:Abnormalities in the white matter may be correlate with the cognitive deficits in schizophrenia. Previous studies in schizophrenia with different illness durations using diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) obtained inconsistent results, this may be course, antipsychotic or other factors.Objective:The purpose of the study was to investigate if the white matter abnormalities emerge at the early stage or result from the pathological progression by comparing schizophrenia patients with different illness durations.Methods:15 first-episode schizophrenia patients,15 chronic schizophrenia patients and 15 age, gender, handedness matched healthy controls were recruited. All of the subjects completed a general information gathering and Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) scanning, and the same day completed Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale (PANSS) and Global Assessment Scale (GAS) assessed with schizophrenia patients by specially trained psychiatrists. Two DTI techniques (voxel based DTI and fiber tracking DTI) were used to investigate CC integrity differences among three groups. And further analysis the association between the scores of PANSS and GAS.Results:With both DTI techniques, significantly decreased fractional anisotropy values were identified in the genu of corpus callosum (CC) only in chronic schizophrenia patients (p<0.05), but not in first-episode schizophrenia patients(p>0.05), compared to healthy controls. Linear correlation analyses showed the FA values in the genu CC were negatively correlated with PANSS scores (r=-0.468,p=0.009), and positively correlated with GAS scores (r=0.567, p=0.001).Conclusion:The white matter of CC abnormalities might be a progressive process in schizophrenia and might be related with the disease severity and prognosis.