Diffusion MRI findings of frontal lobe and parahippocampal gyrus with schizophrenia patients

The aim of this study is to reveal the findings of diffusion- weighted magnetic resonance imaging at frontal lobe and parahippocampal gyrus in patients with schizophrenia disorder and to compare results with the control group. A total of 30 schizophrenia patients all of whom had been referred to the Department of Physciatry of Fırat University Hospital and 30 healty volunteers were enrolled in the present study. The patients were diagnosed in accordance with the DSM-IV classification. In the cases, diffusion- weighted magnetic resonance imaging (DW-MRI) and diffusion weighted echo-planar images (DW-EPI) at b100, b600 and b1000 gradient values were taken and the measurements were made through the Apparent Diffusion Coefficient (ADC) maps of each group from frontal lobe and parahippocampal gyrus which are important at physiopathology of schizophrenia disorder. In our study, no statistically significiant difference was found between ADC values of frontal lobe and parahippocampal gyrus of schizophrenia patients and control group at b100, b600 and b1000 gradients (p>0.05). In conclusion, we think that frontal lobe and parahippocampal gyrus ADC values that were obtained by DW-MRI analysis don?t play a role in the diagnosis of schizophrenia. Key Words: Schizophrenia, frontal lobe, parahippocampal gyrus, diffusion weighted magnetic resonance imaging, apparent diffusion coefficient (ADC)