It will be important, as we move forward, to begin associating such findings with other imaging
modalities such as fMRI and white matter fiber tract measures derived from DTI, in order to understand further brain abnormalities and what they tell us about brain systems and circuits. We also need to tease apart more definitively Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical what is intrinsically a signature, or marker, of the disorder, and what is associated with epiphenomena. Here, evaluating first-episode patients is important because the effects of long-term medication and chronicity can be ruled out as possible confounds, and putative markers can be discovered and better delineated from the epiphenomena of the illness. Additionally, investigating Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical first-episode patients, and prodromal subjects (ie, those who are at high risk for schizophrenia but have as yet not developed it), may lead to important new inroads that will make early intervention possible in order to help prevent this disorder from taking hold and/or becoming chronic. MRI findings in first-episode patients and longitudinal studies
DeLisi and colleagues35 were among the first to conduct cross-sectional Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical and longitudinal studies of first-episode patients with schizophrenia. These investigators Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical followed patients for 10 years and reported lateral ventricular enlargement and reduced volumes in the cerebrum, cerebellum, and corpus callosum. However, DeLisi and colleagues35 failed to identify volume Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical reductions in the frontal or temporal lobes, or in more circumscribed regions of interest within these lobes, compared with healthy controls. In contrast, DeGreef et al36 reported no enlarged ventricles in first-episode patients, though their follow-up was only over a short period of 1 to others 2 years. Also in contrast to DeLisi et
al’s findings, more recent studies have reported volume reduction in the frontal lobes, including Gur and colleagues37 who reported reduced volume in the frontal lobe at 2 to 3 years’ followup in first-episode patients, and Ho and colleagues38 who reported similar findings. Additionally, Kasai and colleagues16 reported reduced volume in the left superior temporal gyrus as early as 1.5 years following first episode of illness, as well as reduced volume in left Heschl’s gyrus and left planum temporale at 1.5 years follow-up.39 These latter findings NVP-BGJ398 supplier suggest that progressive changes occur very early in the course of schizophrenia.
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