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Updated: Apr 24, 2026
Diffusion Tensor Magnetic Resonance Imaging in the Analysis of Neurodegenerative Diseases
Published on: July 28, 2013
Corpus callosum diffusion tensor imaging and volume measures are associated with disease severity in pediatric
Ryan Lee1, Kalyna Apkarian2, Eun Sol Jung3
1Department of Neurology, Shriners Hospitals for Children-Honolulu, Honolulu, Hawaii; Department of Pediatrics, John A. Burns School of Medicine, University of Hawaii, Honolulu, Hawaii.
Background:
Niemann-Pick disease type C1 is a neurodegenerative lysosomal storage disorder. Without a highly effective treatment, biomarkers of severity would be beneficial for prognostication and testing new interventions. Diffusion tensor imaging has shown microstructural abnormalities in adults with Niemann-Pick disease type C1. This is the first study to apply diffusion tensor imaging and volume analysis to evaluate the corpus callosum in a pediatric and adolescent population of patients with Niemann-Pick disease type C1. We hypothesized that the callosal fractional anisotropy, volume, and cross-sectional area will negatively correlate with NPC severity score.
Methods:
Thirty-nine individuals with Niemann-Pick disease type C1 aged 1-21.9 years (mean = 11.1; S.D. = 6.1), and each received one magnetic resonance imaging examination. Severity score were obtained by examination and clinical observation. An atlas-based automated approach was used to measure fractional anisotropy, cross-sectional area, and volume. For comparative analysis and validation of this atlas-based approach, one midsagittal image was chosen and the corpus callosum manually traced to obtain cross-sectional area. Statistical analyses were applied to study the relationships between imaging and clinical severity.
Results:
For patients with Niemann-Pick disease type C1, lower corpus callosum fractional anisotropy, volume, and cross-sectional area significantly correlate with higher severity score. Severity subdomain analysis revealed ambulation, speech, seizures, and incontinence have the strongest relationships with callosal measures. Comparison of atlas-based processing and manual tracing techniques demonstrated validity for the automated method.
Conclusions:
For individuals with Niemann-Pick disease type C1, the corpus callosum measures correlate with clinical severity. These findings reveal promise for the discovery of new imaging biomarkers for this disorder.
