Diffusion tensor imaging study of white matter in schizophrenic patients and their healthy siblings

Abstract

Objective The objective is to determine whether brain regional pattern of neural disconnectivity is shared by schizophrenic patients and their healthy siblings or only presented in schizophrenic patients. Methods To investigated brain white matter (WM) abnormalities by voxel-based analysis of WM fractional anisotropy (FA) data acquired from diffusion tensor imaging in 34 pairs of schizophrenic patients and their healthy siblings and 32 healthy controls. Results Both schizophrenic patients and their healthy siblings showed reduced WM FA in the left prefrontal cortex (PFC) (patients：0.303±0.006; siblings： 0.320±0.006) and hippocampus (patients： 0.310±0.005; siblings：0.318±0.006) as compared with healthy controls (PFC:0.338±0.007; hippocampus:0.338±0.005) (P 0.05). In marked contrast, only schizophrenic patients exhibited reduced WM FA (0.391±0.006) in the left anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) as compared with either siblings (0.423±0.006) (P 0.05). Conclusions Schizophrenic patients and their healthy siblings show similar abnormalities of brain WM integrity. Schizophrenic patients and their healthy siblings share neural disconnectivity in the left PFC and hippocampus that may relate to the higher risk of healthy siblings to develop schizophrenia, which may be eventually attributed to additional neural disconnectivity in the left ACC. Key words: Schizophrenic patients; Healthy siblings; White matter; Fractional anisotropy