Vitria Adisetiyo1, Sarah S. Milla2,
Howard Weiner3, Caixia Hu2, Ali Tabesh2,
Jens H. Jensen1,2, Joseph A. Helpern1,2
1Neuroscience and Physiology, New York
University School of Medicine, New York, NY, United States; 2Radiology,
New York University School of Medicine, New York, NY, United States; 3Neurosurgery,
New York University School of Medicine, New York, NY, United States
Tuberous
Sclerosis Complex (TSC) is a rare genetic disease that manifests in the CNS
as cortical/subcortical tuber lesions consisting of abnormal dysplastic
neurons. Tubers are presumed to contribute to epileptogenesis and to
developmental delays in TSC. Given several reports of silent tubers with
active surrounding perilesion tissue, we applied Diffusional Kurtosis Imaging
(DKI) to quantitatively characterize the microstructure of tubers as compared
to surrounding perilesion and normal appearing contralateral tissue in TSC
patients aged 2-10 years and age-matched controls. Region of interest
analysis found that only tubers are associated with significant increase in
diffusivity and substantial decrease in microstructural heterogeneity.