ABSENCE OF THE ADHESIO INTERTHALAMICA AS A MARKER OF EARLY DEVELOPMENTAL NEUROPATHOLOGY IN SCHIZOPHRENIA - AN MRI AND POSTMORTEM HISTOLOGIC-STUDY

Several recent studies have reported an association between midline ce rebral malformations (e.g., corpus callosum, cavum septum pellucidum) and schizophrenia. The authors investigated whether absence of the adh esio interthalamica (AI), a midline structure that develops in concert with prominent features of the ventricular system soon after the brid ge from the late embryonic stages to early fetal life, might. constitu te a marker of early developmental neuropathologic changes in schizoph renia. Eighty-two patients (54 men, 28 women) with a diagnosis of firs t-episode schizophrenia (FES) were recruited from consecutive admissio ns to a psychiatric inpatient service. Fifty-two healthy central subje cts (30 men, 22 women) were recruited and matched to the patient sampl e on distributions of sex and age. Magnetic resonance imaging studies were performed, and the presence versus absence of the AI was determin ed for each subject. The length and Volume of the third ventricle were measured for each subject. The AI was found to be absent more often a mong patients with FES compared with control subjects, and patients wi thout an observable AI also had larger third-ventricle volumes. These differences in presence or absence of the AI observed in vivo (but not in a comparable postmortem sample of histologically fixed and prepare d brain slices), which are likely related to third-ventricle enlargeme nt, may represent yet another early developmental marker of cerebral m alformation among patients with FES.