MRI volume measurement of basal ganglia volumes in patients with Tourette's syndrome

Objective To evaluate MRI measurement of basal ganglia volumes in patients with Tourette's syndrome.Methods Ten patients with Tourette's syndrome(TS)and 10 healthy volunteers were studied.Volumes of bilateral candate,putamen and pallidum were measured,and the results were analyzed using paired t test.The basal ganglia volume was normalized according to individual brain volume.The basal ganglia volumes of TS patients were compared with normal control group using independent-sample t tesL Results In 10 healthy volunteers,volumes of the left caudate,putamen,pallidum were significantly larger compared with those of the right side(P＜0.05).However,there were no significant differenees between bilateral basal ganglia volumes(P＞0.05)in TS patients.After normalized processing,the volumes oftlle left candate(7.06±0.48)cm3,putamen(8.81 ± 1.01)cm3,pallidum(2.64 ± 0.38)cm3were smaller than those of control group[caudate(11.05±1.86)cm3,putamen(9.97 ±1.11 ) cm3, paUidum (3.04 ± 0.37 ) cm3 ] (t= - 6.577, - 2.457, - 2.376, P＜0.05 ).The volume of the right caudate (7.32 ± 0.26) em3 in IS patients was significantly smaller compared with the control group (9.81±1.83) cm3 (t = -4.258, P ＜0.01 ).However, the volumes of the right putamen and pallidum had no significant difference between two groups (P＞0.05).Conclusion The basal ganglia volumes were significantly decreased in patients with TS.MRI volumetric measurement was an important tool for evaluating pathologic changes of TS. Key words: Tourette syndrome; Magnetic resonance imaging