Articles: bipolar-disorder-pathology.
-
To identify changes in brain activation patterns in bipolar disorder (BD) and unipolar depression (UD) patients. ⋯ The resting-state fMRI and ReHo mapping are a promising tool to assist the detection of functional deficits and distinguish clinical and pathophysiological signs of BD and UD.
-
Neuroimaging studies suggest anterior-limbic structural brain abnormalities in patients with bipolar disorder (BD), but few studies have shown these abnormalities in unaffected but genetically liable family members. In this study, we report morphometric correlates of genetic risk for BD using voxel-based morphometry. In 35 BD type I (BD-I) patients, 20 unaffected first-degree relatives (UAR) of BD patients and 40 healthy control subjects underwent 3 T magnetic resonance scanner imaging. ⋯ For white matter (WM) volumes, there was a significant main effect of diagnosis for medial frontal gyrus. The UAR subjects had smaller right medial frontal WM volumes compared with the healthy subjects. These findings suggest that morphometric brain abnormalities of the anterior-limbic neural substrate are associated with family history of BD, which may give insight into the pathophysiology of BD, and be a potential candidate as a morphological endophenotype of BD.
-
White matter abnormalities have been reported in bipolar disorder. The present study aimed to investigate white matter integrity in untreated first episode patients with psychotic bipolar disorder using diffusion tensor imaging, and to compare observations with those from untreated first episode schizophrenia patients. ⋯ Selectively increased radial diffusivity in bipolar disorder patients suggests structural disorganization in fiber tract coherence of neurodevelopmental origin or alterations in myelin sheaths along fiber tracts. In contrast, increased isotropic diffusion along white matter tracts in schizophrenia patients with alterations in both radial and axial diffusivity suggests increased water content outside the axonal space. Thus, the present results suggest that different pathophysiological mechanisms may underlie white matter microstructural abnormalities in bipolar disorder and schizophrenia.
-
J Psychiatry Neurosci · Nov 2011
Combined analysis of grey matter voxel-based morphometry and white matter tract-based spatial statistics in late-life bipolar disorder.
Previous magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) studies in young patients with bipolar disorder indicated the presence of grey matter concentration changes as well as microstructural alterations in white matter in various neocortical areas and the corpus callosum. Whether these structural changes are also present in elderly patients with bipolar disorder with long-lasting clinical evolution remains unclear. ⋯ Our data document the concomitant presence of grey matter concentration decreases in the anterior limbic areas and the reduced fibre tract coherence in the corpus callosum of elderly patients with long-lasting bipolar disorder.
-
Eur Arch Psychiatry Clin Neurosci · Aug 2011
Different gray matter patterns in chronic schizophrenia and chronic bipolar disorder patients identified using voxel-based morphometry.
Gray matter (GM) volume deficits have been described in patients with schizophrenia (Sz) and bipolar disorder (BD), but to date, few studies have directly compared GM volumes between these syndromes with methods allowing for whole-brain comparisons. We have used structural magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and voxel-based morphometry (VBM) to compare GM volumes between 38 Sz and 19 BD chronic patients. We also included 24 healthy controls. ⋯ Besides, a subcortical GM deficit was shown by Sz and BD groups when compared to the healthy controls, although a putaminal reduction was only evident in the Sz patients. In this comparison, the BD patients showed a limited cortical and subcortical GM deficit. These results support a partly different pattern of GM deficits associated to chronic Sz and chronic BD, with some degree of overlapping.