Altered Microstructure Of Brain White Matter In Women With Anorexia Nervosa:A Diffusion Tensor Imaging Study

Objective:Structural studies have reported anorexia nervosa(AN)patients with abnormal gray matter in several brain regions and dysfunction in some connected neural circuits.However,the role of white matter(WM)in AN patients has rarely been investigated.The present study aimed to assess alterations in WM microstructure of the entire brain in women with AN using a voxel-based method on diffusion tensor imaging(DTI)data.Methods:The study enrolled eight female patients with AN(16-22 years,17.6 ± 2.2years)and fourteen age-matched healthy control(HC).The DTI data was collected from each subject to calculate the fractional anisotropy(FA)maps of the whole brain by the DTI-Studio software.Subsequently,a two-sample t-test(P<0.05,corrected)was performed to detect the difference in FA maps of AN and CW group,and a Pearson's correlation analyzed the relationship between mean FA value of brain regions and body mass index(BMI).Results:Compared to CW,AN patients revealed a significant decrease of FA maps in the left superior frontal gyrus,medial frontal gyrus,anterior cingulate cortex,middle frontal gyrus,inferior frontal gyrus,thalamus,and bilateral insula(p<0.05,corrected).Moreover,significantly positive correlations were established between the mean FA value of the left inferior frontal gyrus,insula as well as thalamus and BMI in AN patients:left IFG(r = 0.916;p = 0.001),insula(r = 0.898;p = 0.002)as well as thalamus(r = 0.815;p-0.014).Conclusions:Our findings supported the presence of white matter abnormality in patients with AN.The significant differences of FA maps,in patients with AN,were associated with their aberrant BMI.The results further improve our understanding of the pathophysiological mechanisms underlying AN.