Specific White Matter Impairments in Patients with Treatment-Refractory First-Episode Schizophrenia: A 1-Year Follow-up Pilot Study

• Published in: Chinese medical journal 2018-04, Vol.131 (7), p.879-880
• Main Authors: Chen, Min, Zhuo, Chuan-Jun, Qian, Li-Ju, Wang, Bin, Zhai, Jin-Guo, Ji, Feng, Ke, Xiao-Yan
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Brain; Correspondence; Follow-Up Studies; Humans; Information communication; Magnetic Resonance Imaging; NMR; Nuclear magnetic resonance; Patients; Pilot Projects; Schizophrenia; Schizophrenia - drug therapy; Schizophrenia - pathology; White Matter - pathology
• ISSN: 0366-6999; 2542-5641
• DOI: 10.4103/0366-6999.228233

According to the assessment at the time of 1 year of systematic treatment, the patients who were in remission or TR were determined according to the criteria listed in China's schizophrenia treatment guidelines. Diffusion tensor images (DTIs) were acquired by an echo-planar imaging sequence with parameters as follows TR = 5800 ms; TE = 77 ms; matrix = 128 × 128; FOV = 256 × 256 mm; in-plane resolution = 2 mm × 2 mm, slice thickness = 3 mm, no gap; totally 48 axial slices; 25 encoding diffusion directions with two values of b (b = 1000 and 2000 s/mm 2) for each direction and 10 nondiffusion-weighted images (b = 0 s/mm 2). The brain regions in which WM impairment existed in the TR group indicated that information communication abilities were impaired in these and other brain regions, causing deterioration of schizophrenic symptoms, and the patient might become TR.