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Updated: Jan 31, 2026
Diffusion Tensor Magnetic Resonance Imaging in the Analysis of Neurodegenerative Diseases
Published on: July 28, 2013
Psychoradiologic abnormalities of white matter in patients with bipolar disorder: diffusion tensor imaging studies
Cheng Yang1, Lei Li1, Xinyu Hu1
1From the Huaxi MR Research Center (HMRRC), Department of Radiology, West China Hospital of Sichuan University, China (Yang, Li, Hu, Luo, Lui, Huang, Sweeney, Gong); the Department of Psychiatry, West China Hospital of Sichuan University, China (Kuang); the Department of Psychoradiology, Chengdu Mental Health Center, China (Kuang, Dai, He); the Liverpool Magnetic Resonance Imaging Centre (LiMRIC) and Institute of Ageing and Chronic Disease, University of Liverpool, United Kingdom (Kemp); the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Neuroscience, University of Cincinnati, Cincinnati, Ohio, United States (Sweeney); and the Department of Psychology, School of Public Administration, Sichuan University, China (Gong).
Background:
An increasing number of psychoradiology studies that use tract-based spatial statistics (TBSS) of diffusion tensor imaging have reported abnormalities of white matter in patients with bipolar disorder; however, robust conclusions have proven elusive, especially considering some important clinical and demographic factors. In the present study, we performed a quantitative meta-analysis of TBSS studies to elucidate the most consistent white-matter abnormalities in patients with bipolar disorder.
Methods:
We conducted a systematic search up to May 2017 for all TBSS studies comparing fractional anisotropy (FA) between patients with bipolar disorder and healthy controls. We performed anisotropic effect size–signed differential mapping meta-analysis.
Results:
We identified a total of 22 data sets including 556 patients with bipolar disorder and 623 healthy controls. We found significant FA reductions in the genu and body of the corpus callosum in patients with bipolar disorder relative to healthy controls. No regions of increased FA were reported. In subgroup analyses, the FA reduction in the genu of the corpus callosum retained significance in patients with bipolar disorder type I, and the FA reduction in the body of the corpus callosum retained significance in euthymic patients with bipolar disorder. Meta-regression analysis revealed that the percentage of female patients was negatively correlated with reduced FA in the body of the corpus callosum.
Limitations:
Data acquisition, patient characteristics and clinical variables in the included studies were heterogeneous. The small number of diffusion tensor imaging studies using TBSS in patients with bipolar disorder type II, as well as the lack of other clinical information, hindered the application of subgroup meta-analyses.
Conclusion:
Our study consistently identified decreased FA in the genu and body of the corpus callosum, suggesting that interhemispheric communication may be the connectivity most affected in patients with bipolar disorder.
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