Age-related changes in lateral ventricular width and periventricular white matter by DTI

Ventricular enlargement has been suggested as a structural biomarker for normal aging and progression of some illnesses, such as Alzheimer's disease. However, the question of how this structural change in the brain in normal elderly affects change of white matters remains a topic of interest and concern.

Dr. Sang Seok Yeo, College of Medicine, Yeungnam University, Republic of Korea, and his team performed a diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) study to investigate the question. They detected four regions of interest in the periventricular white matter of 60 normal subjected aged 20-78 years using DTI technique: the anterior corona radiata, the posterior corona radiata, and the genu and splenium of the corpus callosum. They also assessed ventricular width using ventricular body index, anterior horn index, and posterior horn index, and found that the increase of fractional anisotropy value and apparent diffusion coefficient value of the anterior and posterior corona radiata appear to be related to enlargement of the ventricle by normal aging. Consequently, these effects on periventricular white matter might show correlation with cognitive and sensory motor deficits by aging.

These results were published in Neural Regeneration Research (Vol. 9, No. 9, 2014).

More information:
Kwon YH, Jang SH, Yeo SS. Age-related changes of lateral ventricular width and periventricular white matter in the human brain: a diffusion tensor imaging study. Neural Regen Res. 2014;9(9):986-989.

Provided by Neural Regeneration Research