Frederikse M, Lu A, Aylward E, Barta P, Sharma T, Pearlson G
Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD 21287, USA.
Am J Psychiatry. 2000 Mar;157(3):422-7. doi: 10.1176/appi.ajp.157.3.422.
The inferior parietal lobule is a heteromodal association cortical region that has been implicated in the pathophysiology of schizophrenia. Inferior parietal lobule gray matter volumes have been shown to differ between healthy male and female subjects, with male subjects having larger left volumes. The authors sought to determine whether these volumetric sex differences also exist in patients with schizophrenia.
The authors used magnetic resonance imaging to measure inferior parietal lobule volumes of 15 pairs of male and female schizophrenic subjects who were individually matched to each other and to 15 pairs of healthy male and female subjects.
Male schizophrenic patients exhibited a reversal of the normal left-greater-than-right male asymmetry in this region and had left inferior parietal lobule gray matter volumes that were significantly smaller than those of healthy male subjects. Female schizophrenic patients did not differ significantly from healthy female subjects in left or right inferior parietal lobule volume or in asymmetry.
This study provides further evidence of brain morphology sex differences in schizophrenia that possibly contribute to the differential clinical disease expression in men and women.
顶下小叶是一个异模态联合皮质区域，已被认为与精神分裂症的病理生理学有关。研究表明，健康男性和女性受试者的顶下小叶灰质体积存在差异，男性受试者左侧体积更大。作者试图确定精神分裂症患者中是否也存在这些体积上的性别差异。
作者使用磁共振成像测量了15对男性和女性精神分裂症患者的顶下小叶体积，这些患者相互之间以及与15对健康男性和女性受试者进行了个体匹配。
男性精神分裂症患者在该区域出现了正常的左侧大于右侧的男性不对称性反转，其左侧顶下小叶灰质体积明显小于健康男性受试者。女性精神分裂症患者在左侧或右侧顶下小叶体积或不对称性方面与健康女性受试者没有显著差异。
本研究进一步证明了精神分裂症患者大脑形态的性别差异，这可能导致男女临床疾病表现的差异。
