Abstract
The cerebellar peduncles are excellent candidates for composite indicators of regional degeneration in posterior fossa structures, as the peduncles show histopathological changes in degenerative ataxia. We postulate that magnetic resonance imaging will reveal evidence of disease specific peduncle degeneration through macrostructural (cross-sectional area) and microstructural (fractional anisotropy, mean diffusivity) measures. This study presents a “proof of principle” using orthogonal diffusion tensor imaging cross-sections of the cerebellar peduncles to distinguish categories of cerebellar disease.
References
Berciano J, Boesch S, Perez-Ramos JM, Wenning GK (2006) Olivopontocerebellar atrophy: toward a better nosological definition. Mov Disord 21:1607–1613
Landman BA, Chowdhury S, Sinofsky AH, Liu ASK, Mori S, Zee DS, Prince JL, Ying SH (2006) Delineation of cerebellar fiber tracts on anatomically aligned planes with ViPAR, a novel MRI visualization and manipulation tool. Organization for Human Brain Mapping, Florence
McAuliffe MJ, Lalonde F, McGarry DP, Gandler W, Csaky K, Trus BL (2001). Medical image processing, analysis and visualization in clinical research. In: Proceedings of the 14th IEEE symposium on computer-based medical systems (CBMS 2001)
Mandelli ML, De ST, Minati L, Bruzzone MG, Mariotti C, Fancellu R, Savoiardo M, Grisoli M (2007) Diffusion tensor imaging of spinocerebellar ataxias types 1 and 2. Am J Neuroradiol 28:1996–2000
Shiga K, Yamada K, Yoshikawa K, Mizuno T, Nishimura T, Nakagawa M (2005) Local tissue anisotropy decreases in cerebellopetal fibers and pyramidal tract in multiple system atrophy. J Neurol 252:589–596
Murata Y, Kawakami H, Yamaguchi S, Nishimura M, Kohriyama T, Ishizaki F, Matsuyama Z, Mimori Y, Nakamura S (1998) Characteristic magnetic resonance imaging findings in spinocerebellar ataxia 6. Arch Neurol 55:1348–1352
Acknowledgments
This work was supported by the Arnold-Chiari Foundation, the Robin Zee Fund, the Dana Foundation Program for Brain and Immuno-Imaging, the National Organization for Rare Disorders, and the following NIH grants: 1K23EY015802, 5T32DC00023, R01EY01849, R01NS056307, and R21NS059830. Special acknowledgements to Andrew S. K. Liu, Katherine K. Loya, and Jennifer L. Cuzzocreo for their invaluable assistance.
Conflict of interest statement
The authors have reported no conflicts of interest.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Ying, S.H., Landman, B.A., Chowdhury, S. et al. Orthogonal diffusion-weighted MRI measures distinguish region-specific degeneration in cerebellar ataxia subtypes. J Neurol 256, 1939–1942 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00415-009-5269-1
Received:
Revised:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00415-009-5269-1