• Khema R Sharma, Sulaiman Sheriff, Andrew Maudsley, and Varan Govind.
• Department of Neurology, University of Miami, Miller School of Medicine, Miami, FL 33136, USA. ksharma@med.miami.edu
• J Neuroimaging. 2013 Jul 1;23(3):368-74.

PurposeTo assess the involvement of basal ganglia and thalamus in patients with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) using diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) method.MethodsFourteen definite-ALS patients and 12 age-matched controls underwent whole brain DTI on a 3T scanner. Mean-diffusivity (MD) and fractional anisotropy (FA) were obtained bilaterally from the basal ganglia and thalamus in the regions-of-interest (ROIs).ResultsThe MD was significantly higher (P < .02) in basal ganglia and thalamus in patients with ALS compared with controls. Correspondingly, the FA was significantly lower (P < .02) in these structures, except in caudate (P = .04) and putamen (P = .06) in patients compared with controls. There were mild to strong correlations (r = .3-.7) between the DTI measures of basal ganglia and finger-tap, foot-tap, and lip-and-tongue movement rate.ConclusionsThe increased MD in basal ganglia and thalamus and decreased FA in globus pallidus and thalamus are indicative of neuronal loss or dysfunction in these structures.Copyright © 2012 by the American Society of Neuroimaging.

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