No Evidence of Acute or Predisposing Structural Abnormalities in Patients with Transient Global Amnesia (TGA): A Tract Based Spatial Statistics (TBSS) Study

Alex Foerster¹, Martin Griebe¹, Christina Rossmanith¹, Achim Gass¹, Rolf Kern¹, Michael G. Hennerici¹, Kristina Szabo¹

In a prospective explorative approach using DTI and tract-based spatial statistics (TBSS) we sought to elucidate a possible underlying more extensive disturbance of the hippocampal network in transient global amnesia (TGA). We performed voxelwise statistics comparing TGA patients with healthy controls matched for age, sex and extent of chronic white matter lesions. TBSS revealed no significant differences in FA and MD values despite persisting mild cognitive deficits in the subacute phase after the end of the episode in all patients. This finding suggests a transient functional perturbation than an impaired structural integrity of hippocampal and/or mesiotemporal memory circuits in TGA.