Wei Li, Presenter: Nothing to Disclose

Wei Wang MD, Abstract Co-Author: Nothing to Disclose

Yarong Wang, Abstract Co-Author: Nothing to Disclose

Qiang Li, Abstract Co-Author: Nothing to Disclose

Jia Zhu, Abstract Co-Author: Nothing to Disclose

Wei Chuan Yang MD, Abstract Co-Author: Nothing to Disclose

Whiter matter structure is associate with behavioral and functional disorders in substance abuse. Exposure to addictive drugs, such as cocaine, opioid, nicotine, alcohol, cannabis, and methamphetamine has been shown disrupted whiter matter integrity. However, few studies have quantitavely examined whiter matter alteration in onefold heroin dependence. We used diffusion tensor imaging to explore whether heroin has specific effects on whiter matter.

Voxel-based analysis were used to compare white matter integrity between 17 onefold heroin dependent subjects and 15 healthy controls. Fractional anisotropy (FA) , axial and radial eigenvalues (λ∥ and λ⊥) were measured in white matter of whole brain with DTIstudio and statistical Parametric Mapping (SPM 8) software. DTI measurements in identified regions were correlated with clinical features including duration and dosage of heroin exposure.

Compared with controls heroin dependent subjects displayed decreased FA in bilateral frontal lobe sub-gyrus, cingulate gyrus, medial frontal gyrus, extra-nuclear and left temporal lobe sub-gyrus, right superior frontal gyrus. In order to determine whether the FA reductions caused by alterations of λ⊥ or λ∥, we compared the radial and axial diffusivity between two groups respectively, and found compared with controls, λ⊥ increased in bilateral frontal lobe sub-gyrus, cingulate gyrus and extra-nuclear in HD subjects. There are no regions showed reduced λ⊥ and there are no difference in λ∥ between groups. Using multiple linear regression analysis, we found no significant correlations between the duration or dosage of heroin abuse and FA values or λ⊥ in any clusters.

The findings indicate that chronic heroin dependent subjects had widespread disruption of whiter matter connectivity, especially in anterior brain regions and reward-related regions .And demyelination may be the mainly pathological conditions.

DTI is non-invasive and useful for investigation of heroin dependence and it may provide deep insight into the basis of behavioral and functional disorder in heroin dependence.

Li, W, Wang, W, Wang, Y, Li, Q, Zhu, J, Yang, W, Whiter Matter Alteration in Chronic Heroin Dependence.  Radiological Society of North America 2011 Scientific Assembly and Annual Meeting, November 26 - December 2, 2011 ,Chicago IL. http://archive.rsna.org/2011/11014875.html