A study of the septum pellucidum and corpus callosum in schizophrenia with MR imaging

Abstract

Surface areas of the septum pellucidum, corpus callosum and the brain were measured from mid-saggital slices obtained with magnetic resonance imaging in 18 patients with schizophrenia and an equal number of normal volunteers. The patients showed larger septa and septo-brain ratios. These indices correlated with age in both patients and controls. In the patients, septal area also correlated with duration of illness. Changes in the septum pellucidum were unrelated to the intensity of positive and negative symptoms of schizophrenia. The patients had significantly longer corpora callosa, but the two groups did not differ on its size or the ratio between the latter and the mid-saggital slice area. Dimensions of the corpus callosum did not correlate with age, duration of the illness or positive and negative symptoms of schizophrenia. The anteroposterior elongation of the structure seemed to accompany enlargement of the septum pellucidum.

Increased head circumference in schizophrenia

“…Results were similar using two different control groups, and distributions appeared unimodal. These results are consistent with previous reports suggesting cranial size is increased (Weinberger et al 1987) or at least is not decreased in schizophrenia (Andreasen et al 1990;Breier et al 1992;DeMyer et al 1988;Jernigan et al 1991;Mathew et al 1985;Pearlson et al 1991), particularly in male subjects (Andreasen et al 1990;Jernigan et al 1991;Mathew et al 1985;Reveley and Reveley 1987).…”

Explorations in the Relationship of Dream Sleep to Schizophrenia Using Positron Emisson Tomography

“…Uematsu and Kaiya [32] found an increased anterior corpus callosum area to whole brain ratio in male schizophren ics compared lo controls using magnetic resonance imag ing (MRI). Matthew et al [33] did not confirm an increased thickness but did note an elongation of the corpus callosum in schizophrenia in another MRI study. The relationship between thickness and metabolic rate has unfortunately not been studied.…”

Clinical correlates of enlarged cavum septum pellucidum in schizophrenia: A revisit through computed tomography

“…Several studies have documented that patients with schizophrenia have an increased rate of enlarged cavum septum pellucidum (CSP) compared to healthy control groups (DeGreef et al, 1992a;DeLisi et al, 1993;Jurjus et al, 1993;Scott et al, 1993;Nopoulos et al, 1996;Galarza et al, 2004;Filipovic et al, 2005) while this was not replicated in a recent study (Rajarethinam et al, 2007). Earlier and recent studies have attempted to examine relationships between CSP measures and clinical and demographic variables (Jurjus et al, 1993;Mathew et al, 1985;Shioiri et al, 1996), symptoms (Mathew et al, 1985;Nopoulos et al, 2000), duration of illness (Fukuzako et al, 1996;Mathew et al, 1985), family history of illness (Uematsu and Kaiya, 1989), intellectual functioning (Nopoulos et al, 2000). While some studies have not documented any relationships between these variables and presence of CSP (DeLisi et al, 1993;Galarza et al, 2004;Jurjus et al, 1993;Rajarethinam et al, 2001;Shioiri et al, 1996), few have found intriguing evidence.…”

“…Uematsu and Kaiya (1989) reported that CSP was significantly related to family history of schizophrenia while Nopoulos et al (2000) reported a significant inverse relationship between size of CSP and IQ scores. Mathew et al (1985) reported a significant correlation between age and septal area, and between duration of illness and septal area. Although the overall incidence of CSP between patients and controls was not found to differ, Fukuzako et al (1996) noted that patients with a history of longterm institutionalization (>3 years) had a significantly higher incidence of CSP.…”