American Journal of Neuroradiology 27:1712-1716, September 2006
© 2006 American Society of Neuroradiology
PEDIATRICS
Assessment of White Matter Damage in Subacute Sclerosing Panencephalitis Using Quantitative Diffusion Tensor MR Imaging
a Department of Radiodiagnosis
Sanjay Gandhi Post Graduate Institute of Medical Sciences, Lucknow, UP, India
b Department of Microbiology, Sanjay Gandhi Post Graduate Institute of Medical Sciences, Lucknow, UP, India
c Department of Neurology, King George Medical University, Lucknow, UP, India
d Department of Mathematics, Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur, UP, India
e Department of Diagnostic and Interventional Imaging, University of Texas Medical School at Houston, Houston, Tex
Please address correspondence to Rakesh K. Gupta, MD, MR Section, Department of Radiodiagnosis, Sanjay Gandhi Post Graduate Institute of Medical Sciences, Lucknow, UP, India 226014; e-mail: rakeshree{at}hotmail.com; rgupta{at}sgpgi.ac.in
BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE: Subacute sclerosing panencephalitis (SSPE), a rare progressive degenerative disease, is caused by persistent infection with a defective measles virus. The correlation between the clinical staging and MR imaging is usually poor. The aim of the study was to investigate the role of diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) in the early detection of white matter damage in SSPE in the presence of normal findings on conventional imaging.
METHODS: DTI was performed in 21 patients in stage II SSPE and 10 age/sex-matched healthy controls. Fractional anisotropy (FA) and mean diffusivity (MD) values were calculated in the periventricular white matter, corpus callosum, and posterior limb of the internal capsule in patients with normal and abnormal findings on conventional imaging as well as healthy controls.
RESULTS: The patients were grouped into those with normal (n = 11) and abnormal (n = 10) findings on conventional imaging for the purpose of quantitative DTI analysis. Abnormal- and normal-appearing white matter on T2-weighted images showed significantly decreased FA values in all the regions compared with those in healthy controls. MD values were significantly increased in the periventricular white matter region of the frontal and parietooccipital lobe in patients with normal as well as abnormal findings on conventional imaging compared with those in healthy controls.
CONCLUSION: DTI detects early white matter abnormalities that may have significant therapeutic implication, even in the presence of normal findings on conventional imaging, in patients with SSPE.