Alteration of diffusion tensor parameters in postmortem brain.

摘要: In autopsy of humans, there is usually an interval hours to days between death and tissue fixation, during which the cadaver stored below room temperature retard autolysis. We have attempted model this process evaluate alteration in diffusion indices postmortem brain pigs, were kept at 4°C. The pigs scanned prior 3, 6, 9, 12, 18, 24, 30, 36, 42, 48 72 h postmortem. Regions interest placed corpus callosum, internal capsule, periventricular subcortical white matter anteriorly posteriorly. There was a slight increase fractional anisotropy (FA) first 3 FA remained stable up marked decrease trace, eigenmajor (λmajor), eigenmedium (λmedium) eigenminor (λminor), particularly following death. This study supports utility measuring if time elapsed fixation within days. However, trace eigenvalues decreased markedly few Therefore obtained from ex vivo studies cannot be extrapolated studies.