AUTHOR=Koreki Akihiro , Niida Richi , Niida Akira , Yamagata Bun , Anamizu Sachiko , Mimura Masaru 

TITLE=Comparison of White Matter Structure of Drug-Naïve Patients With Bipolar Disorder and Major Depressive Disorder Using Diffusion Tensor Tractography

JOURNAL=Frontiers in Psychiatry

VOLUME=Volume 12 - 2021

YEAR=2022

URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/psychiatry/articles/10.3389/fpsyt.2021.714502

DOI=10.3389/fpsyt.2021.714502

ISSN=1664-0640

ABSTRACT=BACKGROUND: The presence of microstructural white matter (WM) abnormalities in individuals with bipolar disorder (BD) have been reported. However, no study has compared the differences in WM structure among drug-naïve BD, drug-naïve major depression disorder (MDD), and healthy controls (HC) using the visual evaluation method of diffusion tensor tractography (DTT).
METHODS: This retrospective study included 12 drug-naïve patients with BD, 15 with MDD, and 27 age- and sex-matched HC. Visual evaluation, fractional anisotropy (FA), and apparent diffusion coefficient (ADC) were analyzed in the anterior thalamic radiation (ATR), cingulate fasciculus, superior longitudinal fasciculus, inferior longitudinal fasciculus, inferior fronto-occipital fasciculus, uncinate fasciculus, and fornix using the optimal follow-up truncation threshold.
RESULTS: No significant differences were found regarding the FA or ADC of any tract. However, visual evaluation revealed poor depiction of ATR in patients with BD compared to MDD and HC (p = 0.004), and post hoc analysis showed a significant difference between BD and HC (p = 0.018).
CONCLUSIONS: The visual evaluation method of DTT revealed poor depiction of ATR in patients with BD compared to HC and MDD, suggesting microstructural WM abnormalities of ATR in BD.