Published in

Wiley Open Access, Human Brain Mapping, 10(30), p. 3265-3274, 2009

DOI: 10.1002/hbm.20747

Elsevier, NeuroImage, (47), p. S47

DOI: 10.1016/s1053-8119(09)70073-4

Links

Tools

Export citation

Search in Google Scholar

Voxelwise and Skeleton-Based Region of Interest Analysis of Fetal Alcohol Syndrome and Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorders in Young Adults

Journal article published in 2009 by Longchuan Li ORCID, Claire D. Coles, Mary Ellen Lynch, Xiaoping Hu
This paper is made freely available by the publisher.
This paper is made freely available by the publisher.

Full text: Download

Green circle
Preprint: archiving allowed
Green circle
Postprint: archiving allowed
Green circle
Published version: archiving allowed
Data provided by SHERPA/RoMEO

Abstract

Though fetal alcohol syndrome (FAS) and fetal alcohol spectrum disorders are among the most common developmental disorders, their understanding is incomplete. Diffusion tensor imaging (DTI), which is sensitive to microstructural organization in white matter, may provide a relevant measure in this population demonstrating incompletely characterized white matter pathology. In this study, tract-based spatial statistics (TBSS) routine and a skeleton-based region of interest analyses were employed to detect differences in DTI-derived metrics between young adults who were alcohol exposed and an unexposed control group. Participants include 28 with dysmorphic features associated with FAS, 29 who were prenatally exposed but do not show physical effects, and 25 with the same low socioeconomic status but unexposed. The TBSS analysis revealed a statistically significant decrease in fractional anisotropy at the isthmus of the corpus callosum and its connected callosal fibers in dysmorphic individuals relative to controls (clusterwise P(FWE) < 0.05). This finding was consistent with that of the follow-up skeleton-based region of interest analysis (F((2,79)) = 3.256, p = 0.044). In addition, the patterns in axial and radial diffusivity changes suggest that demyelination may be associated with the degraded white matter integrity observed in the dysmorphic group.