The Institute of Mental Health, Second Xiangya Hospital of Central South University, Changsha, P R China.
J Psychiatry Neurosci. 2011 Mar;36(2):120-5. doi: 10.1503/jpn.100041.
Abnormalities in the corpus callosum have long been implicated in schizophrenia. Previous diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) studies in patients with different durations of schizophrenia yielded inconsistent results. By comparing patients with different durations of schizophrenia, we investigated if white matter abnormalities of the corpus callosum emerge at an early stage in the illness or result from pathological progression.
We recruited patients with first-episode schizophrenia, patients with chronic schizophrenia and age-, sex- and handedness-matched healthy controls. We used 2 DTI techniques (voxel-based and fibre-tracking DTI) to investigate differences in corpus callosum integrity among the 3 groups.
With both DTI techniques, significantly decreased fractional anisotropy values were identified in the genu of corpus callosum in patients with chronic schizophrenia, but not first-episode schizophrenia, compared with healthy controls.
This study was cross-sectional, and the sample size was relatively small.
Abnormalities in the genu of the corpus callosum might be a progressive process in schizophrenia, perhaps related to disease severity and prognosis.
胼胝体异常与精神分裂症存在长期关联。先前针对不同患病时长的精神分裂症患者的弥散张量成像（DTI）研究得出了不一致的结果。通过比较不同患病时长的精神分裂症患者，我们研究了胼胝体的白质异常是否在疾病早期出现，或者是否由病理性进展导致。
我们招募了首发精神分裂症患者、慢性精神分裂症患者以及年龄、性别和惯用手匹配的健康对照组。我们使用了两种 DTI 技术（体素和纤维追踪 DTI）来研究三组间胼胝体完整性的差异。
在使用两种 DTI 技术时，与健康对照组相比，慢性精神分裂症患者的胼胝体膝部的各向异性分数值明显降低，但首发精神分裂症患者无此改变。
本研究为横断面研究，样本量相对较小。
胼胝体膝部的异常可能是精神分裂症的一个进展性过程，可能与疾病严重程度和预后有关。
