Abstract #1180

Diffusion Spectrum Imaging Tractography Study in Chronic Alcoholics Found Marked Deficit of White Matter Integrity in the Posterior Cingulate Cortex

Cheng-Liang Liu¹, I-Chao Liu², Chih-Jui Chen, Wen-Yang Chiang, Fang-Cheng Yeh, Wen-Yih Isaac Tseng³

¹ Center for Optoelectronic Biomedicine, National Taiwan University College of Medicine, Taipei, Taiwan; ²School of Medicine, Fu Jen Catholic University, Taipei, Taiwan; ³Department of Medical Imaging, National Taiwan University Hospital, Taipei, Taiwan

In order to investigate which fiber tracts in chronic alcoholics are most severely damaged, voxel base morphometry (VBM) was used to identify the most significant areas of reduced fractional anisotropy (FA). Diffusion spectrum imaging (DSI) tractography was then used to identify the tracts that passed through these regions and to analyze the change in FA values along these tracts. VBM showed that bilateral posterior cingulate cortices were the most significant areas, and the corresponding regions in bilateral cingulate bundles showed significant reduction in FA. Our results suggest that the white matter abnormality in the posterior cingulate cortex might be the core lesion in chornic alcoholics.