Correlating Function and Imaging Measures of the Medial Longitudinal Fasciculus

Overview

Journal PLoS One

Specialties General Medicine
Science

Date 2016 Jan 23

PMID 26800522

Citations 3

Authors

Ken Sakaie

Masaya Takahashi

Gina Remington

Xiaofeng Wang

Amy Conger

Darrel Conger

Ivan Dimitrov

Stephen Jones

Ashley Frohman

Teresa Frohman

Koji Sagiyama

Osamu Togao

Robert J Fox

Elliot Frohman

Affiliations

Soon will be listed here.

Abstract

Objective: To test the validity of diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) measures of tissue injury by examining such measures in a white matter structure with well-defined function, the medial longitudinal fasciculus (MLF). Injury to the MLF underlies internuclear ophthalmoparesis (INO).

Methods: 40 MS patients with chronic INO and 15 healthy controls were examined under an IRB-approved protocol. Tissue integrity of the MLF was characterized by DTI parameters: longitudinal diffusivity (LD), transverse diffusivity (TD), mean diffusivity (MD) and fractional anisotropy (FA). Severity of INO was quantified by infrared oculography to measure versional disconjugacy index (VDI).

Results: LD was significantly lower in patients than in controls in the medulla-pons region of the MLF (p < 0.03). FA was also lower in patients in the same region (p < 0.0004). LD of the medulla-pons region correlated with VDI (R = -0.28, p < 0.05) as did FA in the midbrain section (R = 0.31, p < 0.02).

Conclusions: This study demonstrates that DTI measures of brain tissue injury can detect injury to a functionally relevant white matter pathway, and that such measures correlate with clinically accepted evaluation indices for INO. The results validate DTI as a useful imaging measure of tissue integrity.

Citing Articles

The trajectory of the medial longitudinal fasciculus in the human brain: A diffusion imaging-based tractography study.

Li M, Yeh F, Zeng Q, Wu X, Wang X, Zhu Z Hum Brain Mapp. 2021; 42(18):6070-6086.

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A model for interrogating the clinico-radiological paradox in multiple sclerosis: Internuclear ophthalmoplegia.

Nij Bijvank J, Sanchez Aliaga E, Balk L, Coric D, Davagnanam I, Tan H Eur J Neurol. 2021; 28(5):1617-1626.

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Three-Dimensional Identification of the Medial Longitudinal Fasciculus in the Human Brain: A Diffusion Tensor Imaging Study.

Yeo S, Jang S, Kwon J, Cho I J Clin Med. 2020; 9(5).

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