Cortico-thalamo-striatal circuit components’ volumes and their correlations differ significantly among patients with obsessive–compulsive disorder: a case–control MRI study

Figures & data

Figure 1. The measurment of orbitofrontal cortex (a), anterior cingulate cortex (b), and dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (c,d) in sagittal T2 images.

Figure 2. The measurment of striatum and thalamus (a–d) in sequential axial T2 images.

Table 1. The sociodemographic and clinical comparison of obsessive–compulsive disorder patients and healthy controls.

	OCD patients (n = 21)		Healthy controls (n = 25)		Statistical analysis
	Mean	SD	Mean	SD	U	Z	p
Age					258.0	−0.09	.92
Educational level (years)	40.1	12.5	39.6	12.4	143.0	−0.48	.63
Duration of illness (years)	10.2	9.8	–	–	–	–	–
YBOCS (Total)ObsessionCompulsion	25.9 12.8 12.7	9.8 4.9 5.4	–	–	–	–	–
	n	%	n	%	χ2	df	p
GenderFemaleMale	14 7	66.7 33.3	18 7	72.0 28.0	0.15	1	.69
Marital statusMarriedSingleSeparated/divorced	14 5 2	66.7 23.8 9.5	4 14 1	21.1 73.7 5.3	10.07	2	.006
Lifetime depression	7	33.3	–	–	9.82	1	.002

Note: OCD: Obsessive–compulsive disorder; YBOC: Yale-Brown Obsessive-Compulsive Scale.

Table 2. The comparison of brain volumes between obsessive–compulsive disorder patients and healthy controls.

	OCD patients (n = 21)		Healthy controls (n = 25)		Statistical analysis
	Mean	SD	Mean	SD	U	Z	p
Thalamus (mm^3)TotalRightLeft	10.3 5.2 5.0	1.2 0.7 0.5	10.4 5.2 5.2	1.5 0.8 0.7	254.0 255.0 232.5	−0.19 −0.15 −0.66	.85 .87 .50
DLPFC (mm^3)TotalRightLeft	17.0 8.3 7.5	0.7 0.5 0.7	14.7 7.3 7.5	0.7 0.5 0.7	32.0 62.0 35.0	−5.08 −4.42 −5.01	<.0001 <.0001 <.0001
OFC (mm^3)TotalRightLeft	36.4 18.2 16.7	1.4 0.8 0.9	33.3 16.5 16.7	2.1 0.9 1.3	58.0 54.0 80.5	−4.51 −4.59 −4.01	<.0001 <.0001 <.0001
ACC (mm^3)TotalRightLeft	11.4 7.2 4.2	0.9 0.4 0.9	13.9 6.9 6.9	1.6 0.7 1.0	58.0 191.0 9.0	−4.51 −1.57 −5.59	<.0001 .11 <.0001
Striatum (mm^3)TotalRightLeft	14.7 8.0 6.7	1.7 0.4 1.6	16.5 8.3 8.2	2.2 0.9 1.2	142.0 204.5 130.0	−2.65 −1.27 −2.92	.008 .20 .003

Note: DLPFC: dorsolateral prefrontal cortex; OFC: Orbitofrontal cortex; ACC: Anterior cingulate cortex.

Table 3. The correlations between brain volumes and clinical variables in OCD patients (n = 21).

	Age	Equivalant doses	YBOCStotal	YBOCSobsession	YBOCScompulsion	Duration of the illness
ThalamusTotalRightLeft	−0.17 −0.07 −0.10	−0.05 −0.24 0.14	0.01 0.05 0.14	−0.05 −0.02 0.08	0.05 0.04 0.24	−0.19 −0.09 −0.14
DLPFCTotalRightLeft	−0.10 −0.04 −0.20	0.17 0.26 0.05	−0.20 −0.11 −0.23	−0.18 −0.10 −0.23	−0.22 −0.12 −0.28	−0.33 −0.23 −0.19
OFCTotalRightLeft	0.13 0.14 0.03	0.20 0.45* −0.04	−0.13 −0.21 0.05	−0.17 −0.25 0.01	−0.05 −0.14 0.12	0.09 0.05 0.12
ACCTotalRightLeft	−0.38 −0.34 −0.20	0.29 −0.09 0.28	0.57** 0.04 0.45*	0.58** 0.11 0.45*	0.49* −0.01 0.41	−0.10 −0.46* 0.04
StriatumTotalRightLeft	−0.56** −0.01 −0.57**	0.39 −0.20 0.44*	0.33 −0.33 0.48*	0.32 −0.32 0.48**	0.28 −0.33 0.43	0.12 −0.22 0.14

*p < .05.

**p < .005.

Table 4. The correlations between brain volumes in healthy controls (n = 25).

	DLPFCright	DLPFCleft	OFCright	OFCleft	ACCright	ACCleft	Striatumright	Striatumleft
ThalamusRightLeft	0.03 0.12	0.15 0.01	0.39 0.41*	0.28 0.23	0.50* 0.51**	0.57** 0.60***	0.34 0.33	0.39* 0.37
DLPFCRightLeft	– –	– –	0.47* 0.37	0.23 0.25	0.22 0.26	0.24 0.13	0.15 0.15	0.23 0.23
OFCRightLeft	– –	– –	– –	– –	0.68*** 0.67***	0.72*** 0.42*	0.47* 0.44*	0.59** 0.52**
ACCRightLeft	– –	– –	– –	– –	– –	– –	0.79*** 0.64***	0.82*** 0.71***

*p < .05.

**p < .005.

***p < .0001.

Table 5. The correlations between brain volumes in OCD patients (n = 21).

	DLPFCright	DLPFCleft	OFCright	OFCleft	ACCright	ACCleft	Striatumright	Striatumleft
ThalamusRightLeft	−0.24 0.01	0.05 −0.11	0.12 0.25	0.24 −0.24	0.12 0.04	−0.17 −0.19	0.23 −0.07	−0.21 −0.10
DLPFCRightLeft	– –	– –	−0.01 −0.12	0.00 −0.06	0.15 0.31	−0.14 0.13	−0.21 0.09	0.11 0.17
OFCRightLeft	– –	– –	– –	– –	−0.19 0.12	−0.14 −0.23	0.34 0.42	0.19 0.18
ACCRightLeft	– –	– –	– –	– –	– –	– –	0.29 −0.28	0.22 0.54*

*p < .05.

Table 6. Fisher r–z transformation test results between OCD patients and healthy controls (z/p values).

	DLPFCright	DLPFCleft	OFCright	OFCleft	ACCright	ACCleft	Striatumright	Striatumleft
ThalamusRightLeft	−0.68 to 0.49 0.35–0.72	0.32–0.74 −0.32 to 0.74	0.92–0.35 0.57–0.56	0.14–0.88 −0.03 to 0.97	1.35–0.17 1.64–0.10	1.50–0.13 1.58–0.11	0.38–0.70 0.86–0.38	0.62–0.53 0.91–0.36
DLPFCRightLeft	– –	– –	1.57–0.11 0.84–0.40	0.74–0.45 0.61–0.54	0.23–0.81 −0.17 to 0.86	0.33–0.74 0.00–1.00	−0.2 to 0.84 0.19–0.84	0.39–0.69 0.20–0.84
OFCRightLeft	– –	– –	– –	– –	2.00–0.04* 2.17–0.03*	2.41–0.01* 0.67–0.57	0.49–0.62 0.08–0.93	1.53–0.12 1.24–0.21
ACCRightLeft	– –	– –	– –	– –	– –	– –	2.43–0.01* 1.48–0.13	2.94–0.003** 0.89–0.37

*p < .05.

**p < .005.