Background and purpose: We investigated white matter abnormalities in patients with spontaneous subarachnoid hemorrhage following aneurysmal rupture, by using tract-based spatial statistics.
Methods: Sixteen patients with spontaneous subarachnoid hemorrhage due to aneurysmal rupture and 18 age- and sex-matched healthy control subjects were recruited. Voxel-wise statistical analysis of fractional anisotropy data was performed by using tract-based spatial statistics as implemented in the Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging of the Brain Software Library. We calculated mean fractional anisotropy values across the tract skeleton and within 48 regions of interest based on the intersections between the fractional anisotropy skeleton and the probabilistic Johns Hopkins University white matter atlases.
Results: Comparing the patient and control groups, the fractional anisotropy values of 44 regions of interest among the 48 regions of interest showed significant differences (P<0.05). However, significant differences were not observed in the remaining 4 regions of interest (both retrolenticular parts of the internal capsule, the right superior longitudinal fasciculus, and the right superior corona radiata; P>0.05).
Conclusions: By undertaking tract-based spatial statistics analysis, we detected wide-ranging white matter abnormalities in patients with spontaneous subarachnoid hemorrhage. Registration: URL: http://www.e-irb.com/index.jsp. Unique identifier: 2019-06-032.
Keywords: diffusion tensor imaging; subarachnoid hemorrhage; tract-based spatial statistics; white matter.