Differences in cerebellar blood volume in schizophrenia and bipolar disorder

Brain morphometry has been studied extensively in schizophrenic patients, a nd among the cortical differences identified two consistent findings are de creased cerebellar vermal volume and increased volume of the fourth ventric le; although contradictory findings are reported as well. Recent cognitive activation studies utilizing PET, SPECT and fMRI have identified both decre ased and increased activation in the cerebellum of schizophrenic patients c ompared with healthy controls. This study used DSC fMRI to map cerebellar b lood volume in patients with schizophrenia or bipolar disorder and healthy controls. For all cerebellar regions analyzed, schizophrenic patients had t he highest cerebellar blood volume, while bipolars had the lowest blood vol ume. Morphometric measurements were completed and indicated that the ratio of vermis to whole CBL tissue volume was 24% less for the schizophrenic pop ulation than controls, whereas the subjects with bipolar disorder had a rat io that was non-significantly smaller than controls by 19%. Comparison of m orphometric data with blood volume data did not reveal any statistically si gnificant correlations among the study groups. (C) 1999 Elsevier Science B. V. All rights reserved.