Nuran Tunc-Skarka1, Wolfgang Weber-Fahr1, Mareen Hoerst1, Susanne Englisch2, Christine Esslinger2, Dragos Inta2, Alexander Guttschalk2, Mathias Zink2, Gabriele Ende1
1Department Neuroimaging, Central Institute of Mental Health, Mannheim, Germany; 2Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Central Institute of Mental Health, Mannheim, Germany
There are several studies that found reduced NAA in schizophrenic patients. This could be an indication that NAA concentration or relaxation might be different due to pathological microstructure changes. The major problem of individual metabolite relaxation time estimation is the long measurement time. Nevertheless, only with the knowledge of individual relaxation time it is possible to evaluate absolute concentrations. In this study we wanted to estimate absolute metabolite concentrations of the frontal white matter in schizophrenic patients while evaluating individual T2 relaxation time and to compare with healthy controls. We found differences in NAA concentration and T2 relaxation time.