Abstract
Studies using diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) have shown multifocal reduction in anisotropy of white matter fibre tracts in schizophrenia, and a few of these also suggest changes in apparent diffusion coefficient (ADC). In this study, we assessed ADC in 18 patients with schizophrenia and 18 healthy controls using a voxel-based approach. We did not find evidence of statistically significant changes in ADC in either direction at P < 0.05 (FDR corrected) using different smoothing filter sizes; only at an uncorrected threshold of P < 0.001 did we find an increase in a small right prefrontal area close to our previous FA finding. Our findings therefore do not support ADC changes to be a marker of white matter or grey matter abnormalities in schizophrenia. Changes in other parameters like fractional anisotropy (FA) might be a more sensitive indicator of white matter pathology in this disorder.
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Acknowledgments
I. N. was supported by a Junior Scientists grant of the IZKF (Interdisziplinäres Zentrum für klinische Forschung) of the Friedrich-Schiller-University of Jena, Germany.
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Nenadic, I., Wagner, G., Güllmar, D. et al. ADC changes in schizophrenia: a diffusion-weighted imaging study. Eur Arch Psychiatry Clin Neurosci 261, 213–216 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00406-010-0150-x
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00406-010-0150-x