Abstract: Objective To investigate the feasibility and effect of diffusion tensor imaging study in assessing the white matter structural integrity in HIV patients after highly active antiretroviral therapy(HAART) for therapeutic effect evaluation. Methods 74 HIV patients,including 28 HIV infectors with HAART and 48 HIV infectors without HAART,were randomly selected who underwent conventional MRI and DTI. Fractional anisotropy(FA) and apparent diffusion coefficient(ADC) values were measured in several regions:anterior limbs of internal capsule,posterior limbs of internal capsule,genu of internal capsule and genu of corpus callosum, splenium of corpus callosum and trunk of corpus callosum. The differences of mean FA value and ADC value between the two groups were compared by independent sample t test. Results Compared with patients without HAART group,FA values in anterior limbs of internal capsule,genu of corpus callous,splenium of corpus callous,and trunk of corpus callous in patients with HAART group had a significant increase(P<0.05).Moreover,there is no significant difference of FA values in the genu of internal capsule,posterior limbs of internal capsule and all the ROIs between the two groups(P>0.05). Conclusions DTI is a simple and noninvasive method for evaluating the change of white matter structural integrity in HIV patients and assessing the effect of HAART on white matter integrity. Besides,the changes of quantitative DTI value(FA) indicate that HAART may inhibit or lessen the damage to white matter caused by HIV.

Key words: HIV infector, DTI, HAART, Internal capsule, Corpus callosum