White matter microstructural changes in adolescent anorexia nervosa including an exploratory longitudinal study.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Anorexia nervosa (AN) often begins in adolescence, however, the understanding of the underlying pathophysiology at this developmentally important age is scarce, impeding early interventions. We used diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) to investigate microstructural white matter (WM) brain changes including an experimental longitudinal follow-up.

Methods

We acquired whole brain diffusion-weighted brain scans of 22 adolescent female hospitalized patients with AN at admission and nine patients longitudinally at discharge after weight rehabilitation. Patients (10-18 years) were compared to 21 typically developing controls (TD). Tract-based spatial statistics (TBSS) were applied to compare fractional anisotropy (FA) across groups and time points. Associations between averag

SUBMITTER: Vogel K 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4857215 | biostudies-literature | 2016

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature