Qing Ji1, John O. Glass1, Elizabeth C. Duncan1, Amar Gajjar2, and Willburn E. Reddick1
1Diagnostic Imaging, St.Jude Children's Research Hospital, Memphis, TN, United States, 2Oncology, St.Jude Children's Research Hospital, Memphis, TN, United States
Global and regional cerebral
white matter changes induced by cranial
radiotherapy (CRT) were analyzed by comparing Pre-CRT and Post-CRT
diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) from 30 childhood medulloblastoma patients using
a structural connectivity network model and graph theory approaches. At the
global level, global network efficiency and character path were significantly
changed for the whole network. At the regional level, 17 of 82 network nodes
had significantly decreased local efficiencies, and 14 of those nodes also had
significantly decreased clustering coefficients. These findings suggest significant reduction in the microstructural
integrity immediately after CRT in this population.
