Abstract #2451

A Magnetic Resonance Imaging Study of Cortical Thickness & Volumetric Changes in Hepatitis C: Before & After Interferon Therapy

Manoj K. Sarma¹, M. Albert Thomas¹, Rajakumar Nagarajan¹, April Thames², Steven Castellon³, Elyse Singer⁴, Jason Smith⁵, Linda Croad⁶, Lavezza Bhatti⁷, Ann Ragin⁸, Charles Hinkin³

¹Radiological Sciences, UCLA, Los Angeles, CA, United States; ²Psychiatry, UCLA School of Medicine, Los angeles, CA, United States; ³Psychiatry, UCLA School of Medicine, Los Angeles, CA, United States; ⁴Neurology, UCLA School of Medicine, Los Angeles, CA, United States; ⁵VA Greater Los Angeles Healthcare Service, Los Angeles, CA, United States; ⁶Kaiser Permanente Lancaster, CA, United States; ⁷AIDS Healthcare Foundation, Los Angeles, CA, United States; ⁸Radiology, Northwestern University, Chicago, IL, United States

We investigated the cortical thickness and volume across a group of Hepatitis C patients before and after interferon (IFN) therapy employing an automated method for regional parcellation. Significant increase of cortical thickness was observed in lateral occipital in both hemisphere in patients after IFN. Increase cortical volume were seen in both hemisphere at the caudal middle frontal, rostral middle frontal superior temporal and also in left precentral, left lateral orbitofrontal, right middle temporal after IFN. The areas that showed significant reduced cortical volume were left medial orbitofrontal, right fusiform and bilateral lateral occipital.