Fig. 2.

Lateralized asymmetry of the hypothalamic left tubular inferior region in women with PCOS. (a) Radiological view of subunits hypothalamus segmentation with dark green: right tuberal inferior, dark purple: left tuberal inferior, orange: right posterior, pink: left posterior, dark blue: left anterior-inferior, green: right anterior-inferior, light green: right anterior-superior, white: left anterior-superior, light purple: left tubular superior. (b) Illustrative examples of fiber tracking through hypothalamus subunits in patients and controls, represented in the 3 major planes. Colors code for fiber directions (blue: inferior-superior, red: left-right, green: anterior-posterior). While fiber density appears symmetrical in the control case, a left-right asymmetry is observed in the PCOS patient with increased connectivity of the left side of the hypothalamus (white arrow). (c) Unpaired two-tailed Student's t test comparisons between PCOS (n = 23) and controls (n = 17) for fiber density in each hypothalamic subunit; ∗P < 0.05, n.s: not significant. The horizontal line in each plot corresponds to the median value. The vertical line represents the 25th–75th percentile range.