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White matter alterations in adult with autism spectrum disorder evaluated using diffusion kurtosis imaging

  • Diagnostic Neuroradiology
  • Published:
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Abstract

Purpose

Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is related to impairment in various white matter (WM) pathways. Utility of the recently developed two-compartment model of diffusion kurtosis imaging (DKI) to analyse axial diffusivity of WM is restricted by several limitations. The present study aims to validate the utility of model-free DKI in the evaluation of WM alterations in ASD and analyse the potential relationship between DKI-evident WM alterations and personality scales.

Methods

Overall, 15 participants with ASD and 15 neurotypical (NT) controls were scanned on a 3 T magnetic resonance (MR) scanner, and scores for autism quotient (AQ), systemising quotient (SQ) and empathising quotient (EQ) were obtained for both groups. Multishell diffusion-weighted MR data were acquired using two b-values (1000 and 2000 s/mm2). Differences in mean kurtosis (MK), radial kurtosis (RK) and axial kurtosis (AK) between the groups were evaluated using tract-based spatial statistics (TBSS). Finally, the relationships between the kurtosis indices and personality quotients were examined.

Results

The ASD group demonstrated significantly lower AK in the body and splenium of corpus callosum than the NT group; however, no other significant differences were identified. Negative correlations were found between AK and AQ or SQ, predominantly in WM areas related to social–emotional processing such as uncinate fasciculus, inferior fronto-occipital fasciculus, and inferior and superior longitudinal fasciculi.

Conclusions

Model-free DKI and its indices may represent a novel, objective method for detecting the disease severity and WM alterations in patients with ASD.

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Acknowledgements

We thank Yuki Takenaka and Mana Kuramochi for their research assistance.

Funding

This work was supported by JSPS KAKENHI Grant Number JP16H06280, the MEXT-Supported Program for the Private University Research Branding Project and ImPACT Program of Council for Science, Technology and Innovation (Cabinet Office, Government of Japan).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Radiology, Juntendo University Graduate School of Medicine, 2-1-1, Hongo, Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo, 113-8421, Japan

    Aki Hattori, Koji Kamagata, Christina Andica, Akifumi Hagiwara, Shohei Fujita, Tomoko Maekawa, Ryusuke Irie, Kanako K. Kumamaru, Michimasa Suzuki, Akihiko Wada, Masaaki Hori & Shigeki Aoki

  2. Department of Psychiatry, Juntendo University Graduate School of Medicine, 2-1-1, Hongo, Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo, 113-8421, Japan

    Eiji Kirino

  3. Department of Psychiatry, Juntendo University Shizuoka Hospital, 1129, Nagaoka, Shizuoka, 410-2211, Japan

    Eiji Kirino

  4. Department of Information and Communication Sciences, Sophia University, 7-1, Kioicho, Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo, 102-8554, Japan

    Shoji Tanaka

  5. Department of Radiology, The University of Tokyo Graduate School of Medicine, 7-3-1, Hongo, Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo, 113-0033, Japan

    Akifumi Hagiwara, Shohei Fujita, Tomoko Maekawa & Ryusuke Irie

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  1. Aki Hattori
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  2. Koji Kamagata
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Correspondence to Koji Kamagata.

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All procedures performed in reports involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional and/or national research committee and with the 1964 Helsinki declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards.

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Supplementary Table 1

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Supplementary Fig. 1

Comparison of AK between the ASD and NT groups using uncorrected P-value of 0.05. TBSS analyses show significantly decreased AK in three clusters of white matter in the ASD group compared with the NT group. In TBSS, blue-light blue voxels represent lower AK, and arrows show the peak of each cluster. The FA skeleton with an FA > 0.2 is shown in green. To facilitate visualisation, the results are thickened using the fill script implemented in FSL. AK axial kurtosis, ASD autism spectrum disorder, FA fractional anisotropy, FSL FMRIB software library, NT neurotypical control, PFWE family-wise error-corrected P value, ROI range of interest, TBSS tract-based spatial statistic (PNG 235 kb)

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Hattori, A., Kamagata, K., Kirino, E. et al. White matter alterations in adult with autism spectrum disorder evaluated using diffusion kurtosis imaging. Neuroradiology 61, 1343–1353 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00234-019-02238-5

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