REDUCED BASAL GANGLIA VOLUMES IN TOURETTES-SYNDROME USING 3-DIMENSIONAL RECONSTRUCTION TECHNIQUES FROM MAGNETIC-RESONANCE IMAGES

Using a 1.5-tesla GE Signa MR scanner, we imaged the brains of 14 righ t-handed Tourette's syndrome (TS) patients (11 men, three women), aged 18 to 49 years, who had minimal lifetime neuroleptic exposure. We als o studied an equal number of normal controls individually matched for age, sex, and handedness and group-matched for socioeconomic status. W e circumscribed basal ganglia on sequential axial images from spin-ech o proton density-weighted acquisitions (TR 1,700, TE 20; slice thickne ss, 3 mm with 1.5-mm skip) and submitted the images for three-dimensio nal processing at a computer graphics workstation. Our hypothesis of l enticular nucleus volume reduction in TS was confirmed for the left- b ut not the right-sided nucleus. Post hoc analyses revealed smaller mea n volumes of the caudate, lenticular, and globus pallidus nuclei compa red with controls on both the right and left. Further analyses of basa l ganglia asymmetry indices suggest that TS basal ganglia do not have the volumetric asymmetry (left greater than right) seen in normal cont rols. These findings confirm and extend prior phenomenologic, neuropat hologic, and neuroradiologic studies that implicate the basal ganglia in the pathogenesis of TS.