Abstract
Background
Disrupted integrities of fornix and stria terminalis have been suggested in schizophrenia. However, very few studies have focused on the fornix and stria terminalis comparing first-episode schizophrenia (FESZ), chronic schizophrenia (CS) and healthy control (HC)s with the appliance of diffusion-tensor imaging (DTI) technique. The objective of this study is to compare the connectivity of fornix and stria terminalis among FESZ, CS and HCs.
Methods
We included the 44 FESZ patients, 39 CS and 20 HCs in this study. Voxel-wise statistical analysis of the fractional anisotropy (FA) data was performed using Tract-Based Spatial Statistics to analyze the connectivity of fornix and stria terminalis. In addition, Scale for the Assessment of Positive Symptoms(SAPS) and Scale for the Assessment of Negative Symptoms(SANS) were used to evaluate clinical symptom severities.
Results
There were no significant differences between the FESZ, CS and HCs in age, sex, education years. Clinical characteristics of the schizophrenia groups showed no significant differences. FA values of the right fornix cres / stria terminalis in the CS group were significantly lower than those in FESZ and HCs. There were no significant differences of FA values of the right fornix cres / stria terminalis between FESZ and HCs. Pearson correlation analyses revealed that significant correlation between FA values of the right fornix cres / stria terminalies of the FESZ group and positive, negative symptom scales, and FA values of the right fornix cres / stria terminalis of the CS group and negative symptom scales.
Discussion
This study shows that FA values of the fornix and stria terminalis in CS were lower than in FESZ and HCs. These results suggest that fornix and stria terminalis can play a role in pathophysiology of schizophrenia.