Cerebral white matter fractional anisotropy and tract volume as measured by MR imaging are associated with impaired cognitive and motor function in pediatric posterior fossa XXXX survivors.

@entity1 @entity6804 @entity137 @entity2653 @entity75 @entity73 @entity5 @entity816 @entity2841 @entity2946 @entity2055
BACKGROUND: Disease and therapy cause @entity75 and subsequent functional loss in pediatric @entity1 with @entity6804 . Treatment-related @entity137 factors are resection in @entity1 with @entity816 ( @entity816 ) and, additionally, cranio-spinal irradiation together with chemotherapy in @entity1 with @entity2946 ( @entity2946 ). We tested whether damage to white matter (WM) as revealed by diffusion tensor MR imaging (DTI) correlated with specific @entity73 in survivors of pediatric @entity6804 . PROCEDURES: Eighteen @entity2946 (mean age        SD, 15.2        4.9 y) and 14 @entity816 (12.6        5.0 y) survivors were investigated with DTI on a 3-Tesla-MR system. We identified fractional anisotropy (FA) of WM, the volume ratio of WM to gray matter and cerebrospinal fluid (WM/ @entity2841 ), and volume of specific frontocerebellar tracts. @entity2055 was assessed using the International Cooperative @entity2055 Rating Scale (ICARS), while the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for @entity1 determined @entity2653 ( @entity2653 ). Amsterdam Neuropsychological Tasks (ANT) was used to assess processing speed. Handwriting automation was analyzed using a digitizing graphic tablet. RESULTS: The WM/GM   +   @entity2841 ratio correlated significantly with cognitive measures (IQ, P   =   0.002; ANT baseline speed, P   =   0.04; ANT shifting attention, P   =   0.004). FA of skeletonized tracts correlated significantly with @entity2653 (P   =   0.008), ANT baseline speed (P   =   0.028) and ANT shifting attention (P   =   0.045). Moreover, frontocerebellar tract volumes correlated with both the @entity2653 (P   =   0.011) and ICARS (P   =   0.007). CONCLUSION: DTI provides a method for quantification of WM damage by @entity5 and by therapy-associated effects in survivors of pediatric @entity6804 . DTI-derived WM integrity may be a representative marker for @entity73 . Pediatr @entity5    2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
