FOC1-2THE Potential of Diffusion Tensor Imaging to Identify Alcohol Dependent Patients at Risk of Developing Korsakoff's Syndrome (original) (raw)
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Using magnetic resonance imaging and diffusion tensor imaging to assess brain damage in alcoholics
Alcohol research & health : the journal of the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, 2003
Brain imaging using conventional magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) has revealed that several brain structures in people with a history of chronic alcohol dependence are smaller in volume than the same brain structures in nonalcoholic control subjects. Areas that are particularly affected are the frontal lobes, which are involved in reasoning, judgment, and problem solving. Older people are especially vulnerable to the damaging effects of alcohol. It is unclear whether women show consistently more vulnerability to these changes in the brain than men do. In general, alcoholics evaluated before and after a period of abstinence show some recovery of tissue volume, whereas alcoholics evaluated again after continued drinking show further reductions in brain tissue volume. A new MR technique called diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) can aid in detecting the degradation of fibers (i.e., white matter) that carry information between brain cells (i.e., gray matter). With DTI, researchers studying a...
Diffusion Tensor Imaging in Children with Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorders
Alcoholism: Clinical and Experimental Research, 2006
Background: Prenatal alcohol exposure, which is associated with macrostructural brain abnormalities, neurocognitive deficits, and behavioral disturbances, is characterized as fetal alcohol syndrome (FAS) in severe cases. The only published study thus far using diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) showed microstructural abnormalities in patients with FAS. The current study investigated whether similar abnormalities are present in less severely affected, prenatally exposed patients who did not display all of the typical FAS physical stigmata.
Psychology of Addictive Behaviors, 2013
Individuals with alcohol use disorders show white matter abnormality relative to normal samples, yet differences in white matter profiles have not yet been investigated as a function of abstinence. Individuals with current alcohol use disorders (AUD-C; n = 10), individuals with alcohol use disorders in remission for at least one year (AUD-R; n = 9), and healthy control participants (HC; n = 15) matched to alcohol groups on age and smoking status underwent magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). Diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) data were analyzed using tract-based spatial statistics (TBSS). Compared to HC, AUD-C showed reduced axial diffusivity in bilateral frontal and temporal white matter. In AUD-R, lower fractional anisotropy relative to HC was widespread in bilateral parietal regions. A combined AUD-C and AUD-R group had decreased fractional anisotropy primarily in the fornix and thalamus. In conclusion, AUD-R manifested damage in parietal regions integral to processing of visuospatial information and self-awareness, whereas AUD-C showed abnormal diffusivity in fronto-temporal regions that regulate impulsivity, attention, and memory. As a combined group, AUD individuals exhibited abnormality in subcortical areas associated with sensory processing and memory. White matter differences in individuals with AUD may be attributable to premorbid vulnerability or persisting effects of alcohol abuse, but the pattern of abnormality across groups suggests that these abnormalities may be secondary to alcohol use.
Alcoholism: Clinical & Experimental Research, 2005
Background: The International Conference on Applications of Neuroimaging to Alcoholism was held at Yale University in New Haven, CT, in January 2004. The following is a brief summary of the contributions of five speakers who presented their work during the magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) session. Methods: This session addressed how MRI and DTI are used to assess macro-and microstructural brain alterations in alcoholism. Structural MRI methods can address regional gray and white matter volumetric/ morphometric abnormalities, and DTI methods can address microstructural disruptions of white matter tracts. These methods can be applied across the spectrum of alcoholism to elucidate distinct brain abnormalities underlying clinical subtypes, to disentangle brain volume deficits that precede, from those that follow, the onset of alcoholic drinking in chronic alcoholics, and to examine effects of prenatal alcohol exposures on brain development in children. The presentations highlighted recent scientific findings and methodological advances in these areas. Results: Disease-specific probabilistic atlases, designed to reflect the unique anatomy and physiology of particular clinical subpopulations, can be developed for alcoholism. Such an atlas can be used to identify efficiently patterns of altered structure or function in alcoholism and can guide algorithms for knowledge-based image analysis. DTI is sensitive to constraints on the random diffusion of water molecules in axons, allowing assessment of white matter tract integrity in neuropsychiatric diseases, including alcoholism. Recent MRI and DTI data were presented showing region-specific brain abnormalities at both macro-and microstructural levels that varied differentially according to sex, time of alcohol exposure in life, and alcoholism subtype. Conclusion: The International Conference on Applications of Neuroimaging to Alcoholism brought together leading experts in MRI and DTI techniques to discuss their applications to the study of alcoholism. The extant and new imaging technologies provide us with multiple modalities to study the brain in vivo. These noninvasive tools enable us to monitor the time course of alcohol effects on the brain and to characterize macro-and microstructural brain abnormalities across the full spectrum of alcoholism, including its precursors and its sequelae.
Neuropsychology Review, 2011
Over the past 5 years, Diffusion Tensor Imaging (DTI) has begun to provide new evidence about the effects of prenatal alcohol exposure on white matter development. DTI, which examines microstructural tissue integrity, is sensitive to more subtle white matter abnormalities than traditional volumetric MRI methods. Thus far, the available DTI data suggest that white matter microstructural abnormalities fall on a continuum of severity in Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder (FASD). Abnormalities are prominent in the corpus callosum, but also evident in major anterior-posterior fiber bundles, corticospinal tracts, and cerebellum. These subtle abnormalities are correlated with neurocognitive deficits, especially in processing speed, non-verbal ability, and executive functioning. Future studies using larger samples, increasingly sophisticated DTI methods, and additional functional MRI connectivity measures will better characterize the full range of abnormalities in FASD. Ultimately, these measures may serve as indices of change in future longitudinal studies and in studies of interventions for FASD.