Altered white matter integrity in the corpus callosum in adults with HIV: a systematic review of diffusion tensor imaging studies

• Published in: Psychiatry research. Neuroimaging 2022-10, Vol.326, p.111543-111543, Article 111543
• Main Authors: Ahmed-Leitao, Fatima, Du Plessis, Stefan, Konkiewitz, Elisabete Castelon, Spies, Georgina, Seedat, Soraya
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: corpus callosum; DTI; HIV; white matter
• ISSN: 0925-4927; 1872-7506
• DOI: 10.1016/j.pscychresns.2022.111543

•A consistent finding of this systematic review was lower fractional anisotropy (FA) in the corpus callosum (CC) in adult people with HIV (PWH) compared to uninfected controls•The majority of studies also report significantly higher mean diffusivity (MD) in the corpus callosum between HIV infected and uninfected adults•In the main, altered white matter integrity (lower FA, higher MD) correlates with poorer neurocognitive performance in PWH•DTI white matter changes may be putative pre-symptomatic biomarkers of neurocognitive impairment in PWH We systematically reviewed studies comparing differences in the integrity of the corpus callosum in adults with HIV compared to healthy controls, using Diffusion Tensor Imaging (DTI), using search engines Science Direct, Web of Science and PubMed. The search terms used were “HIV”, “corpus callosum”, and a variation of either “DTI” or “Diffusion Tensor Imaging” with or without the term “adults”. We specifically examined the corpus callosum as it is the largest white matter tract in the brain, plays a primary role in cognition, and has been shown to be morphologically altered in people living with HIV. Lower fractional anisotropy (FA) was consistently found in the corpus callosum in people with HIV compared to controls. As most studies used only FA as a measure of diffusion, it would be informative for future research if other DTI metrics, such as mean diffusivity (MD), were also investigated as these metrics may be more sensitive markers of HIV-related neuropathology.