T Melicher1, J Horacek2, J Hlinka3, F Spaniel2, J Tintera4, I Ibrahim4, P Mikolas2, T Novak2, P Mohr2, C Hoschl2. 1. Prague Psychiatric Center, Prague, Czech Republic; National Institute of Mental Health, Klecany, Czech Republic; 3rd Faculty of Medicine, Charles University, Prague, Czech Republic. Electronic address: tomas.melicher@nudz.cz. 2. Prague Psychiatric Center, Prague, Czech Republic; National Institute of Mental Health, Klecany, Czech Republic; 3rd Faculty of Medicine, Charles University, Prague, Czech Republic. 3. Institute for Computer Science, The Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic, Prague, Czech Republic. 4. Institute for Clinical and Experimental Medicine, Prague, Czech Republic.
Abstract
BACKGROUND: White matter abnormality has been recently proposed as a pathophysiological feature of schizophrenia (SZ). However, most of the data available has been gathered from chronic patients, and was therefore possibly confounded by factors such as duration of the disease, and treatment received. The extent and localization of these changes is also not clear. METHODS: We examined a population of early stage SZ patients using diffusion tensor imaging (DTI). 77 SZ patients and 60 healthy controls (HCs) were included in the analysis using Tract-Based Spatial Statistics (TBSS). We have also analyzed 250 randomly created subsets of the original cohort, to investigate the relation between the result of TBSS analysis, and the size of the sample studied. RESULTS: We have found a significant decrease in fractional anisotropy (FA) in the patient group. This change is present in most major white matter (WM) tracts including the corpus callosum, superior and inferior longitudinal fasciculi, inferior fronto-occipital fasciculus, and posterior thalamic radiation. Furthermore, we identified a clear trend towards an increase in the number and spatial extent of significant voxels reported, with an increasing number of subjects included in the analysis. CONCLUSION: Our study shows that FA is significantly decreased in patients at an early stage of schizophrenia, and that the extent of this finding is dependent on the size of studied sample; therefore underpowered studies might produce results with false spatial localization.
BACKGROUND:White matter abnormality has been recently proposed as a pathophysiological feature of schizophrenia (SZ). However, most of the data available has been gathered from chronic patients, and was therefore possibly confounded by factors such as duration of the disease, and treatment received. The extent and localization of these changes is also not clear. METHODS: We examined a population of early stage SZ patients using diffusion tensor imaging (DTI). 77 SZ patients and 60 healthy controls (HCs) were included in the analysis using Tract-Based Spatial Statistics (TBSS). We have also analyzed 250 randomly created subsets of the original cohort, to investigate the relation between the result of TBSS analysis, and the size of the sample studied. RESULTS: We have found a significant decrease in fractional anisotropy (FA) in the patient group. This change is present in most major white matter (WM) tracts including the corpus callosum, superior and inferior longitudinal fasciculi, inferior fronto-occipital fasciculus, and posterior thalamic radiation. Furthermore, we identified a clear trend towards an increase in the number and spatial extent of significant voxels reported, with an increasing number of subjects included in the analysis. CONCLUSION: Our study shows that FA is significantly decreased in patients at an early stage of schizophrenia, and that the extent of this finding is dependent on the size of studied sample; therefore underpowered studies might produce results with false spatial localization.
Authors: Tomas Hajek; Katja Franke; Marian Kolenic; Jana Capkova; Martin Matejka; Lukas Propper; Rudolf Uher; Pavla Stopkova; Tomas Novak; Tomas Paus; Miloslav Kopecek; Filip Spaniel; Martin Alda Journal: Schizophr Bull Date: 2019-01-01 Impact factor: 9.306
Authors: Johanna Seitz-Holland; Joanne D Wojcik; Suheyla Cetin-Karayumak; Amanda E Lyall; Ofer Pasternak; Yogesh Rathi; Mark Vangel; Godfrey Pearlson; Carol Tamminga; John A Sweeney; Brett A Clementz; David A Schretlen; Petra Verena Viher; Katharina Stegmayer; Sebastian Walther; Jungsun Lee; Tim Crow; Anthony James; Aristotle Voineskos; Robert W Buchanan; Philip R Szeszko; Anil K Malhotra; Sinead Kelly; Martha E Shenton; Matcheri S Keshavan; Raquelle I Mesholam-Gately; Marek Kubicki Journal: Mol Psychiatry Date: 2022-08-18 Impact factor: 13.437
Authors: Johanna Seitz-Holland; Suheyla Cetin-Karayumak; Matcheri Keshavan; Marek Kubicki; Joanne D Wojcik; Amanda Lyall; James Levitt; Martha E Shenton; Ofer Pasternak; Carl-Fredrik Westin; Madhura Baxi; Sinead Kelly; Raquelle Mesholam-Gately; Mark Vangel; Godfrey Pearlson; Carol A Tamminga; John A Sweeney; Brett A Clementz; David Schretlen; Petra Verena Viher; Katharina Stegmayer; Sebastian Walther; Jungsun Lee; Tim Crow; Anthony James; Aristotle Voineskos; Robert W Buchanan; Philip R Szeszko; Anil K Malhotra; Yogesh Rathi Journal: Mol Psychiatry Date: 2021-01-22 Impact factor: 13.437