Eva-Maria Ratai1,2, Vadim Villarroel3,
Julian He1,2, Reza Hakimelahi1,2, Robert Fell1,
Chan-Gyu Joo1,2, Jeffrey Bombardier1, Susan
Westmoreland, 2,4, Kenneth Williams5, Ramon Gilberto
Gonzalez1,2
1Department of Radiology, A. A. Martinos
Center for Biomedical Imaging, Massachusetts General Hospital, Charlestown,
MA, United States; 2Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, United
States; 3Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD, United
States; 4Division of Comparative Pathology, New England Primate
Research Center, Southborough, MA, United States; 5Biology
Department, Boston College, Boston, MA, United States
A
significant number of HIV-infected patients develop neurological symptoms
which are thought to be a result of injury to neurons in the CNS. Our
objective was to use DTI to detect abnormalities in white matter in a
SIV-infected, CD8-depleted macaque model of neuroAIDS. MRS and DTI were
conducted before and at 2 and 4 weeks post infection. White matter in the
corpus callosum showed a trend towards decreased FA at 2 wpi. Correlation
analyses demonstrated a significant association between white matter damage
in the splenium and increases in choline. FA showed a negative correlation
with viral load in the CSF.