Structural and microstructural characterization of corpus callosum integrity in paediatric-onset Huntington Disease

Motivation: Investigating the involvement of corpus callosum (CC) in paediatric-onset Huntington disease (POHD) using multimodal structural and diffusion MRI. Goal(s): To compare macro- and microstructural integrity of CC in POHD compared to AOHD and to age-matched healthy controls (HC). Approach: We analyzed differences in terms of volumes, thickness, fractional anisotropy (FA) and mean diffusivity (MD), extracted from the 5 subdivisions equally spaced along the postero-anterior direction of CC (posterior, middle-posterior, central, middle-anterior and anterior) in POHD, AOHD and HC. Results: CC is substantially preserved in POHD compared to both HC and AOHD patients with similar disease severity. Impact: This study provide first characterization of micro- and macrostructural alterations in POHD along the CC. Measures were compared between POHD and age- and sex-matched healthy-controls (PHC) as well as adult-onset HD(AOHD), to explore the differential involvements of these fibre tracts.