The Age-related Changes Of Normal Adult Corpus Callosum Analysis With Diffusion Tensor Imaging

Objective:To explore the changes of correlation between the fractional anisotropy (FA) and the apparent diffusion coefficient (ADC) and the age using the fractional anisotropy and the diffusion characteristics values of normal adults of different ages measured and reconstructed with the diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) techniques.Methods:The Siemens Sonata1.5T MRI scanner was used for the DTI examination of102healthy volunteers and the DTI data was reconstructed into complete callosum fibers through the fiber bundle imaging. The FA value and ADC value of the callosum were measured. The healthy volunteers consisted of49males and53females from20years old to73years old, with the average age of47.1. They were divided into3groups by their ages:the young group with the age from20years old to39years old (n=35), the middle aged group40years old to59years old (n=37) and the elder group with the age older than60years old (n=30).The corpus callosunm consists of two pairs of neuroanatiomical konwledge is very familiar with the radiologist from the fiber shape,position,starting point,ending point and the traveling direction analysis,andobserve both similarities and differences compared with the classical anatomical description.Results:The corpus callosums of all volunteers were observed three dimensionally. The corpus callosum showed lune shape on color sagittal fractional anisotropy map and centipede shape on axial diffusion tensor tracking map. The average FA values of the corpus callosums in each groups were (0.512±0.012)in the young group,(0.489±0.009) in the middle aged group and (0.472±0.108) in the elder group. The average ADC values of the corpus callosums in each groups were (8.598±0.358) e-4mm2/s in the young group,(8.871±0.395) e-4mm2/s in the middle aged group and (9.784±0.873) e-4mm2/s in the elder group. Compared with the young group, the middle-aged group and the elder group were significantly different in the FA value and the ADC value of the callosum fibers (P<0.05). The FA value of the callosum fibers had a significantly negative correlation with the age (r=-0.854, P<0.05) and the ADC value of the callosum fibers had a significantly positive correlation with the age (r=0.625, P<0.05).Conclusions:Diffusion tensor tracking can display the shape and structure of the normal adult cerebral corpus callosum in vivo, and showed accordance with their anatomical description. It provides a new method for cerebral white matter fiber research in vivo.DTI is non-invasive and can reflect the microstructural changes of the callosum fibers with the growth of age, which provides basis for the researches on human aging and their clinical application and provides areference standard value for the corpus callosum related diseases.