Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Glutamate level detection by magnetic resonance spectroscopy in patients with post-stroke depression

  • Original Paper
  • Published:
European Archives of Psychiatry and Clinical Neuroscience Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

In recent studies, the glutamate (Glu) level has been quantified using the modified STEAM sequence on 3T MRI. We enrolled 15 healthy volunteers and a group of 51 patients who experienced stroke for the first time and had a good prognosis. The patients with infarction were divided into three groups according to their scores by using the DSM-IV diagnostic criteria for major depressive disorder and the 17-item Hamilton Depression Rating Scale (HDRS). We studied the association between post-stroke depression and 1H-MRS measurements in unaffected frontal lobes. Single-voxel proton magnetic resonance spectroscopy (1H-MRS) was performed to assess N-acetylaspartate/creatine (NAA)/Cr, (Glu)/Cr, choline (Cho)/Cr, and myoinositol (mI)/Cr ratios in stroke patients. The 11 patients (21.5%) who met the criteria for depression and 9 patients (17.6%) who had a high score for HDRS, (>14) but were not depressed, had a significantly higher Glu/Cr ratio than patients who scored ≤14 on HDRS and control groups (p < 0.001). No differences were found in NAA/Cr, Cho/Cr, or mI/Cr between the groups after stroke. These findings suggest that post-stroke depression is accompanied by changes in glutamate levels in the frontal lobe.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Fig. 1

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  1. Chemerinski E, Robinson RG (2000) The neuropsychiatry of stroke. Psychosomatics 41(1):5–14

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  2. Singh A, Black SE, Herrmann N, Leibovitch FS, Ebert PL, Lawrence J, Szalai JP (2000) Functional and neuroanatomic correlations in poststroke depression: the Sunnybrook Stroke Study. Stoke 31(3):637–644

    CAS  Google Scholar 

  3. Aström M, Adolfsson R, Asplund K (1993) Major depression in stroke patients. A 3-year longitudinal study. Stroke 24(7):976–982

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  4. Malhi GS, Valenzuela M, Wen W, Sachdev P (2002) Magnetic resonance spectroscopy and its applications in psychiatry. Aust N Z J Psychiatry 36(1):31–43

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  5. Petroff OA, Pleban LA, Spencer DD (1995) Symbiosis between in vivo and in vitro NMR spectroscopy: the creatine, N-acetylaspartate, glutamate, and GABA content of the epileptic human brain. Magn Reson Imaging 13(8):1197–1211

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  6. Mendes-Ribeiro JA, Soares R, Simões-Ribeiro F, Guimarães ML (1998) Reduction in temporal N-acetylaspartate and creatine (or choline) ratio in temporal lobe epilepsy: does this 1H-magnetic resonance spectroscopy finding mean poor seizure control? J Neurol Neurosurg Psychiatry 65(4):518–522

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  7. Yang S, Hu J, Kou Z, Yang Y (2008) Spectral simplification for resolved glutamate and glutamine measurement using a standard STEAM sequence with optimized timing parameters at 3, 4, 4.7, 7, and 9.4T. Magn Reson Med 59(2):236–244

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  8. Soares JC, Mann JJ (1997) The anatomy of mood disorders–review of structural neuroimaging studies. Biol Psychiatry 41(1):86–106

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  9. Kumar A, Thomas A, Lavretsky H, Yue K, Huda A, Curran J, Venkatraman T, Estanol L, Mintz J, Mega M, Toga A (2002) Frontal white matter biochemical abnormalities in late-life major depression detected with proton magnetic resonance spectroscopy. Am J Psychiatry 159(4):630–636

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  10. Beauregard M, Leroux JM, Bergman S, Arzoumanian Y, Beaudoin G, Bourgouin P, Stip E (1998) The functional neuroanatomy of major depression: an fMRI study using an emotional activation paradigm. Neuroreport 9(14):3253–3258

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  11. Ochsner KN, Gross JJ (2005) The cognitive control of emotion. Trends Cogn Sci 9(5):242–249

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  12. Ochsner KN, Bunge SA, Gross JJ, Gabrieli JD (2002) Rethinking feelings: an FMRI study of the cognitive regulation of emotion. J Cogn Neurosci 14(8):1215–1229

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  13. Bamford J, Sandercock P, Dennis M, Burn J, Warlow C (1991) Classification and natural history of clinically identifiable subtypes of cerebral infarction. Lancet 337(8756):1521–1526

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  14. Frahm J, Bruhn H, Gyngell ML, Merboldt KD, Hänicke W, Sauter R (1989) Localized high-resolution proton NMR spectroscopy using stimulated echoes: initial applications to human brain in vivo. Magn Reson Med 9(1):79–93

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  15. First MB, Gibbon M, Spitzer RL, Williams JB (1996) User Guide for the Structured Clinical Interview for DSM-IV Axis I Disorders: Research Version. SCID-I, final version, version 2.0. New York State Psychiatric Institute, New York

    Google Scholar 

  16. Hamilton M (1960) A rating scale for depression. J Neurol Neurosurg Psychiatry 23:56–62

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  17. Rosenberg DR, Macmaster FP, Mirza Y, Smith JM, Easter PC, Banerjee SP, Bhandari R, Boyd C, Lynch M, Rose M, Ivey J, Villafuerte RA, Moore GJ, Renshaw P (2005) Reduced anterior cingulate glutamate in pediatric major depression: a magnetic resonance spectroscopy study. Biol Psychiatry 58(9):700–704

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  18. Price RB, Shungu DC, Mao X, Nestadt P, Kelly C, Collins KA, Murrough JW, Charney DS, Mathew SJ (2009) Amino acid neurotransmitters assessed by proton magnetic resonance spectroscopy: relationship to treatment resistance in major depressive disorder. Biol Psychiatry 65(9):792–800

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  19. Auer DP, Pütz B, Kraft E, Lipinski B, Schill J, Holsboer F (2000) Reduced glutamate in the anterior cingulate cortex in depression: an in vivo proton magnetic resonance spectroscopy study. Biol Psychiatry 47(4):305–313

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  20. Levine J, Panchalingam K, Rapoport A, Gershon S, McClure RJ, Pettegrew JW (2000) Increased cerebrospinal fluid glutamine levels in depressed patients. Biol Psychiatry 47(7):586–593

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  21. Glodzik-Sobanska L, Slowik A, McHugh P, Sobiecka B, Kozub J, Rich KE, Urbanik A, Szczudlik A (2006) Single voxel proton magnetic resonance spectroscopy in post-stroke depression. Psychiatry Res 148(2–3):111–120

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  22. Taylor MJ, Mannie ZN, Norbury R, Near J, Cowen PJ (2011) Elevated cortical glutamate in young people at increased familial risk of depression. Int J Neuropsychopharmacol 14(2):255–259

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  23. Hackett ML, Yapa C, Parag V, Anderson CS (2005) Frequency of depression after stroke: a Systematic Review of Observational Studies. Stroke 36(3):1330–1340

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  24. Aben I, Denollet J, Lousberg R, Verhey F, Wojciechowski F, Honig A (2002) Personality and vulnerability to depression in stroke patients: a 1-year prospective follow-up study. Stroke 33(10):2391–2395

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  25. Sappey-Marinier D, Calabrese G, Hetherington HP, Fisher SN, Deicken R, Van Dyke C, Fein G, Weiner MW (1992) Proton magnetic resonance spectroscopy of human brain: applications to normal white matter, chronic infarction, and MRI white matter signal hyperintensities. Magn Reson Med 26(2):313–327

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  26. Michael-Titus AT, Bains S, Jeetle J, Whelpton R (2000) Imipramine phenelzine decrease glutamate overflow in the prefrontal cortex–a possible mechanism of neuroprotection in major depression? Neuroscience 100(4):681–684

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  27. Gruber S, Frey R, Mlynárik V, Stadlbauer A, Heiden A, Kasper S, Kemp GJ, Moser E (2003) Quantification of metabolic differences in the frontal brain of depressive patients and controls obtained by 1H-MRS at 3 Tesla. Invest Radiol 38(7):403–408

    PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  28. Labelle M, Khiat A, Durocher A, Boulanger Y (2001) Comparison of metabolite levels and water diffusion between cortical and subcortical strokes as monitored by MRI and MRS. Invest Radiol 36(3):155–163

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

Download references

Conflict of interest

None.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Diagnostic and Interventional Radiology, The Sixth Affiliated People’s Hospital, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, No. 600, Yi Shan Road, Shanghai, 200233, China

    Xuan Wang, Yue-Hua Li, Ming-Hua Li, Jing Lu & Jun-Gong Zhao

  2. Department of Neurology, The Sixth Affiliated People’s Hospital, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai, China

    Xiao-Jiang Sun & Bin Zhang

  3. Department of Psychiatry, The Sixth Affiliated People’s Hospital, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai, China

    Jian-Lin Ye

Authors
  1. Xuan Wang
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Yue-Hua Li
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Ming-Hua Li
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  4. Jing Lu
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  5. Jun-Gong Zhao
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  6. Xiao-Jiang Sun
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  7. Bin Zhang
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  8. Jian-Lin Ye
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Yue-Hua Li.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Wang, X., Li, YH., Li, MH. et al. Glutamate level detection by magnetic resonance spectroscopy in patients with post-stroke depression. Eur Arch Psychiatry Clin Neurosci 262, 33–38 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00406-011-0209-3

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00406-011-0209-3

Keywords

Search

Navigation