Resumen:
Ventricular enlargement is one of the most
consistent abnormal structural brain findings in schizophrenia
and has been used to infer brain shrinkage. However,
whether ventricular enlargement is related to local
overlying cortex and/or adjacent subcortical structures or
whether it is related to brain volume change globally has
not been assessed. We systematically assessed interrelations
of ventricular volumes with gray and white matter
volumes of 40 Brodmann areas (BAs), the thalamus and its
medial dorsal nucleus and pulvinar, the internal capsule,
caudate and putamen. We acquired structural MRI
( patients with schizophrenia (n = 64) and healthy controls
(n = 56)) and diffusion tensor fractional anisotropy
(FA) (untreated schizophrenia n = 19, controls n = 32). Volumes were assessed by manual tracing of central
structures and a semi-automated parcellation of BAs.
Patients with schizophrenia had increased ventricular size
associated with decreased cortical gray matter volumes
widely across the brain; a similar but less pronounced
pattern was seen in normal controls; local correlations (e.g.
temporal horn with temporal lobe volume) were not
appreciably higher than non-local correlations (e.g. temporal
horn with prefrontal volume). White matter regions
adjacent to the ventricles similarly did not reveal strong
regional relationships. FA and center of mass of the anterior
limb of the internal capsule also appeared differentially
influenced by ventricular volume but findings were s
