정신분열증 환자의 전산화 단층촬영상 대뇌 비대칭성과 대뇌 위축과의 관계

Hemispheric Asymmetry and Its Relationship with Brain Atrophy in Computed Tomography of Schizophrenics

Since the advent of com puted tom ography (C T )，there have been growing evidences of cerebral structural abnorm alities in schizophrenics. A m ong them, reversed hem ispheric asymmetry has been regarded as im paired cerebral lateralization of schizophrenics representing another pathology different from brain atrophy. To investigate the pattern and frequency of reversed cerebral asymmetry and their relationship with brain atrophy, we analyzed widths of frontal and occipital region on the brain C T scans o f right-handed 56 schizophrenics and 52 norm al controls by a m anual method. Brain atrophies were assessed using fixed arm planim etry and visual lineat m easurem ents. C om pared to norm al controls, the schizophrenics showed significantly increased frequency o f reversed occipital asymmetry. D ividing the schizophrenics into group according to the evidences o f atrophy revealed more reversed occipital asymmetry than those with brain atrophy. These findings suggest that reversed cerebral asymmetry m ight be unrelated to brain atrophic process and would be a neuroanatomic evidence o f abnorm al asymmetry of schizophrenices.