• Korean Journal of Psychosomatic Medicine
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• v.25 no.2
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• pp.153-165
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• 2017

Objectives : Recent neuroimaging studies focus on dysfunctions in connectivity between cognitive circuits and emotional circuits: anterior cingulate cortex that connects dorsolateral orbitofrontal cortex and prefrontal cortex to limbic system. Previous studies on pediatric depression using DTI have reported decreased neural connectivity in several brain regions, including the amygdala, anterior cingulate cortex, superior longitudinal fasciculus. We compared the neural connectivity of psychotropic drug naïve adolescent patients with a first onset of major depressive episode with healthy controls using DTI. Methods : Adolescent psychotropic drug naïve patients(n=26, 10 men, 16 women; age range, 13-18 years) who visited the Korea University Guro Hospital and were diagnosed with first onset major depressive disorder were registered. Healthy controls(n=27, 5 males, 22 females; age range, 12-17 years) were recruited. Psychiatric interviews, complete psychometrics including IQ and HAM-D, MRI including diffusion weighted image acquisition were conducted prior to antidepressant administration to the patients. Fractional anisotropy(FA), radial, mean, and axial diffusivity were estimated using DTI. FMRIB Software Library-Tract Based Spatial Statistics was used for statistical analysis. Results : We did not observe any significant difference in whole brain analysis. However, ROI analysis on right superior longitudinal fasciculus resulted in 3 clusters with significant decrease of FA in patients group. Conclusions : The patients with adolescent major depressive disorder showed statistically significant FA decrease in the DTI-based structure compared with healthy control. Therefore we suppose DTI can be used as a bio-marker in psychotropic drug-naïve adolescent patients with first onset major depressive disorder.

• Journal of the Korea Academia-Industrial cooperation Society
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• v.13 no.12
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• pp.5931-5936
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• 2012

This study was to evaluate the clinical usefulness of the PRESS technique based on the correlation between PRESS technique and biopsy results by applying 3.0T high magnetic field MRS technique for evaluation of non-alcoholic fatty liver disease patients. This experiment were carried out using a 3.0T magnetic resonance imaging equipment. The part data of each spectrum is taken by peak area integration. The part data of resonance peak was used to calculate relative ratio. MR spectral peak in patients with non-alcoholic fatty liver disease is from 0.9 to 1.6 ppm. According to MRS method study result, Patients with NAFLD were obtained with 94% sensitivity and 80% specificity(p=0.000). When compared to normal based on MRS and Biopsy results was valid correlation(r=0.79, p=0.04). Results for NAFLD(r=0.89, p=0.002) also showed a correlation. Therefore, PRESS technique to evaluate patients with non-alcoholic fatty liver disease, the distribution difference between normal liver and fatty liver part is significantly distinguished. Biopsy and MRS fatty liver peak ratio(%) proves high lipid over grade(r = 0.7).

• Investigative Magnetic Resonance Imaging
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• v.15 no.2
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• pp.110-122
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• 2011

Purpose : The purpose of this study is to establish the method generating human brain anatomical connectivity from Korean children and evaluating the network topological properties using small-world network analysis. Materials and Methods : Using diffusion tensor images (DTI) and parcellation maps of structural MRIs acquired from twelve healthy Korean children, we generated a brain structural connectivity matrix for individual. We applied one sample t-test to the connectivity maps to derive a representative anatomical connectivity for the group. By spatially normalizing the white matter bundles of participants into a template standard space, we obtained the anatomical brain network model. Network properties including clustering coefficient, characteristic path length, and global/local efficiency were also calculated. Results : We found that the structural connectivity of Korean children group preserves the small-world properties. The anatomical connectivity map obtained in this study showed that children group had higher intra-hemispheric connectivity than inter-hemispheric connectivity. We also observed that the neural connectivity of the group is high between brain stem and motorsensory areas. Conclusion : We suggested a method to examine the anatomical brain network of Korean children group. The proposed method can be used to evaluate the efficiency of anatomical brain networks in people with disease.

• Korean Journal of Biological Psychiatry
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• v.26 no.1
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• pp.8-13
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• 2019

Objectives Disrupted integrities of the fornix and stria terminalis have been suggested in schizophrenia. However, very few studies have focused on the fornix and stria terminalis comparing first-episode schizophrenia (FESZ), chronic schizophrenia (CS), and healthy controls (HCs) with the application of diffusion-tensor imaging (DTI) technique. The objective of this study is to compare the connectivity of the fornix and stria terminalis among FESZ, CS, and HCs. Methods We included the 44 FESZ patients, 39 CS patients and 20 HCs in this study. Voxel-wise statistical analysis of the fractional anisotropy (FA) data was performed using Tract-Based Spatial Statistics to analyze the connectivity of fornix and stria terminalis. In addition, the Scale for the Assessment of Positive Symptoms (SAPS) and the Scale for the Assessment of Negative Symptoms (SANS) were used to evaluate clinical symptom severities. Results There were no significant differences between the FESZ, CS, and HCs in age, sex, education years. The SAPS and SANS scores of the schizophrenia groups showed no significant differences. FA values of the right fornix cres/stria terminalis in the CS group were significantly lower than those in FESZ and HCs. There were no significant differences of FA values of the right fornix cres/stria terminalis between the FESZ and the HCs. Pearson correlation analyses revealed that significant correlation between FA values of the right fornix cres/stria terminalies of the the FESZ group and positive, negative symptom scales, and FA values of the right fornix cres/stria terminalis of the CS group and negative symptom scales. Conclusions This study shows that FA values of the fornix and stria terminalis in the CS were lower than in the FESZ and the HCs. These results suggest that the fornix and stria terminalis can play a role in pathophysiology of schizophrenia. Thus current study can broaden our understanding of the pathophysiology of schizophrenia.