Investigating regional white matter in schizophrenia using diffusion tensor imaging

Diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) was used to investigate regional white matter in vivo in patients with schizophrenia. DTI is capable of providing information about the organization of white matter tracts and has only recently been used to study schizophrenia. In this study, a voxel based analysis of DTI maps in 14 patients and 19 controls did not reveal any areas of significant differences in DTI measures in white matter. The findings suggest that the structural integrity of white matter in these patients was not disrupted. These results are discussed in relation to previous studies reporting positive findings. It is concluded that further studies using DTI in larger samples, improved and standardised methods of data acquisition and analysis are needed.