Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2009 Aug 1;66(3):245-52.
doi: 10.1016/j.biopsych.2009.02.032. Epub 2009 Apr 17.

Diffuse microstructural abnormalities of normal-appearing white matter in late life depression: a diffusion tensor imaging study

Joshua S Shimony  1 , Yvette I Sheline, Gina D'Angelo, Adrian A Epstein, Tammie L S Benzinger, Mark A Mintun, Robert C McKinstry, Abraham Z Snyder
Affiliations

Diffuse microstructural abnormalities of normal-appearing white matter in late life depression: a diffusion tensor imaging study

Joshua S Shimony et al. Biol Psychiatry. .

Abstract

Background: Many recent studies have identified white matter abnormalities in late life depression (LLD). These abnormalities include an increased volume of discrete white matter hyperintensities on T2-weighted imaging (WMH) and changes in the diffusion tensor properties of water. However, no study of LLD to date has examined the integrity of white matter outside of WMH (i.e., in normal-appearing white matter).

Methods: We performed T1- and T2-weighted imaging as well as diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) in depressed elderly subjects (n = 73) and nondepressed control subjects (n = 23) matched for age and cerebrovascular risk factors. The structural images were segmented into white matter, gray matter, cerebrospinal fluid, and WMH. The DTI parameters were calculated in white matter regions of interest after excluding the WMH.

Results: Compared with control subjects, in the LLD group there were widespread abnormalities in DTI parameters, particularly in prefrontal regions. From a comprehensive neuropsychological battery, the strongest correlations were observed between cognitive processing speed and DTI abnormalities.

Conclusions: These results suggest that further investigation is warranted to determine potential reversibility and/or prognosis in LLD.

PubMed Disclaimer

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Illustration of sequential image processing steps. A: T1-weighted image of one subject. B: Coregistered T2-weighted image of the same subject. C: Segmentation result. Voxels corresponding to WMH lesions are shown in purple. D: Mean diffusivity (MD). E: Relative anisotropy (RA). F: Direction of the principal axis of diffusion color-coded using the standard scheme. Red: left-right; Green: anterior-posterior; Blue: ventral-dorsal. Brightness is proportional to the square root of the relative anisotropy.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Top row: Cortical (2D) ROIs defined on a population averaged landmark and surface based atlas (PALS, Van Essen 2005. SFG: superior frontal gyrus; MFG: middle frontal gyrus; IFG: inferior frontal gyrus; OFM: medial orbital frontal; OFL: lateral orbital frontal; DCC: dorsal cingulate; ACC: anterior cingulate; VCC: ventral cingulate cortex; FP: fronto-polar; MC: motor cortex; MTG: medial temporal gyrus; STG: superior temporal gyrus; VTC: ventral temporal cortex (fusiform gyrus); SC: somatosensory cortex; IPG: inferior parietal gyrus; PVC: primary visual cortex. Creation of 3D ROIs from 2D cortical patches is illustrated in Figure 3. Bottom row: Deep white matter ROIs illustrated on atlas slices. Temporal, anterior frontal, dorsal frontal, parietal posterior frontal ROIs are shown in axial views. The sagittal view shows the anterior and posterior corpus callosum ROIs.
Figure 3
Figure 3
Creation of individual 3D ROI in subcortical white matter from 2D atlas ROI. A: After transformation of the atlas–defined 2D region into subject data space and projection by 3mm into the white matter. B: After isotropic dilation by 2mm. C: After exclusion of gray matter by masking and additional erosion by one voxel to prevent volume averaging with gray matter.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Alexopoulos GS, Murphy CF, Gunning-Dixon FM, Latoussakis V, Kanellopoulos D, Klimstra S, Lim KO, Hoptman MJ. Microstructural white matter abnormalities and remission of geriatric depression. Am J Psychiatry. 2008;165:238–244. - PubMed
    1. Nobuhara K, Okugawa G, Sugimoto T, Minami T, Tamagaki C, Takase K, Saito Y, Sawada S, Kinoshita T. Frontal white matter anisotropy and symptom severity of late-life depression: a magnetic resonance diffusion tensor imaging study. J Neurol Neurosurg Psychiatry. 2006;77:120–122. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Taylor WD, MacFall JR, Payne ME, McQuoid DR, Provenzale JM, Steffens DC, Krishnan KR. Late-life depression and microstructural abnormalities in dorsolateral prefrontal cortex white matter. Am J Psychiatry. 2004;161:1293–1296. - PubMed
    1. Sheline YI, Price JL, Vaishnavi SN, Mintun MA, Barch DM, Epstein AA, Wilkins CH, Snyder AZ, Couture L, Schechtman K, McKinstry RC. Regional white matter hyperintensity burden in automated segmentation distinguishes late-life depressed subjects from comparison subjects matched for vascular risk factors. Am J Psychiatry. 2008;165:524–532. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Basser PJ, Mattiello J, LeBihan D. Estimation of the effective self-diffusion tensor from the NMR spin echo. J Magn Reson B. 1994;103:247–254. - PubMed

Publication types