TRADITIONAL POSTER - ismrm

Poster Sessions
1979. White Matter Abnormalities in Tourette Syndrome Extend Beyond Motor Pathways
Irene Neuner 1,2 , Yuliya Kupriyanova 3 , Tony Stöcker 2,4 , Oleg Posnansky 2 , Marc Tittgemeyer 3 , Frank
Schneider 1,4 , N. J. Shah 2,5
1 Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, RWTH Aachen University, Aachen, Germany; 2 Medical Imaging Physics, Institute of
Neuroscience and Medicine - 4, Forschungszentrum Juelich, Juelich, Germany; 3 Max-Planck-Institut für Neurologische Forschung,
Cologne, Germany; 4 JARA – Translational Brain Medicine, Germany; 5 Department of Neurology,Faculty of Medicine, RWTH
Aachen University, Aachen, Germany
White matter abnormalities in patients with Tourette syndrome are investigated using diffusion tensor imaging, Tract-Based Spatial Statistics and correlation
analysis. Our results indicate that TS is not restricted to motor pathways alone but affects association fibres such as the inferior fronto-occipital fascicle, the
superior longitudinal fascicle and fascicle uncinatus as well. The detected abnormalities in Tourette patients complement the idea of the developmental
character of the disorder. They show a pathological pattern reaching beyond the corticospinal tract. The alteration pattern of decreased fractional anisotropy
and increased radial diffusivity might indicate a deficit myelination as one pathophysiologic factor in Tourette.
1980. Persistent Basal Ganglia NAA/Cr Ratio Differences in Gulf War Illness
Sergey Cheshkov 1,2 , Audrey Chang 1 , Hyeon-Man Baek 1 , Sandeep Ganji 1 , Evelyn Babcock 1 , Richard
Briggs 1,2 , Robert Haley 2
1 Radiology, UT Southwestern Medical Center, Dallas, TX, United States; 2 Internal Medicine, UT Southwestern Medical Center,
Dallas, TX, United States
Decrease in the N-acetylaspartate to creatine ratio (NAA/Cr) was previously measured via magnetic resonance spectroscopy at 1.5T in bilateral basal
ganglia, pons, and in left hippocampus of Gulf War Illness patients. The Seabees cohort veterans (controls, Syndrome 1, 2, and 3 patients) studied in 1997-
1998 recently participated in a follow-up study at 3T. The group comparison of this new spectroscopic data indicates reduced NAA/Cr ratio in all three
Syndrome groups compared to the control group, the decrease is significant in the left and nearly significant in the right basal ganglia. This finding indicates
possible neuronal damage in the affected population.
1981. Quantitative Sensory Testing FMRI: Differences Between Gulf War Illness Patients and Deployed
Controls
Aman Ish Goyal 1 , Parina Gandhi 1 , Yan Fang 1 , Lei Jiang 1 , Luo Ouyang 1 , Sandeep Ganji 1 , David Buhner 2 ,
Wendy Ringe 3 , Kaundinya Gopinath 1,2 , Richard Briggs 1,2 , Robert Haley 2
1 Department of Radiology, UT Southwestern Medical Center, Dallas, TX, United States; 2 Department of Internal Medicine, UT
Southwestern Medical Center, Dallas, TX, United States; 3 Department of Psychiatry, UT Southwestern Medical Center, Dallas, TX,
United States
Previous studies have shown higher cooling and warming thresholds in hands and feet of Gulf War (GWI) veterans. In this study, brain activation to warm
sensation stimuli and hot pain stimuli was measured with a quantitative sensory testing (QST) fMRI paradigm, in GWI veterans with Syndromes1 (Syn1),
Syn2 and Syn3, as well as age-matched controls. Syn2 and Syn1 groups exhibited significantly decreased brain activation during warm sensation compared
to controls. On the other hand, Syn2 and Syn1 groups evoked significantly higher activation to hot pain stimuli in a number of pain processing areas.
1982. Advanced Mr Imaging of Active Duty Military Personnel Following Acute Blast-Related Tbi
Christine Louise MacDonald 1 , Dana Cooper 1 , John Witherow 2 , Abraham Snyder 3 , Joshua Shimony 3 ,
Marcus Raichle 3 , Stephen Flaherty 2 , Raymond Fang 2 , David Brody 1
1 Neurology, Washington University, Saint Louis, MO, United States; 2 Landstuhl Regional Medical Center, Landstuhl, Germany;
3 Radiological Sciences, Washington University, Saint Louis, MO, United States
Military personnel have a higher rate than civilians of Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI) even during times of peace. TBI has been called the signature injury of
the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan . Many of these injuries occur as the result of blast exposure, but little is known about the characteristics of blast-related
TBI. Diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) was employed for this study of 85 active duty military personnel (20 control, 65 TBI). Abnormalities were found on
DTI that were not apparent on conventional imaging. This is the first time this has been observed in this particular population.
1983. Transverse Relaxation Measurements of Brain Metabolites in Gulf War Illness
Audrey Jennifer Chang 1 , Sergey Cheshkov 1,2 , Richard Briggs 1,2 , Robert Haley 2
1 Radiology, UT Southwestern Medical Center, Dallas, TX, United States; 2 Internal Medicine, UT Southwestern Medical Center,
Dallas, TX, United States
Relaxation times are often an assumed value in spectroscopy studies, despite their potential diagnostic value and usefulness in quantifying metabolite
concentrations. The purpose of this study was to measure the transverse (T2) relaxation times of the major brain metabolites (NAA, Crt, and Chot) in left
and right basal ganglia of veterans with Gulf War Illness (GWI) and age-matched veteran controls to determine if the T2 values differ between ill veterans
and controls or among the three syndrome variants of GWI.