MRI evidence of microstructural lesions in the mesencephalon and pons of patients with idiopathic narcolepsy

Introduction: Neuroimaging in patients with symptomatic narcolepsy often reveals hypothalamic, pontine or mesencephalic lesions. However, the relevance of these findings for patients with idiopathic narcolepsy remains unclear and previous neuroimaging studies revealed conflicting results. Material and Methods: To investigate possible microstructural abnormalities in narcolepsy patients, Diffusion Tensor Imaging (DTI) was conducted on nine patients with idiopathic narcolepsy without RBD and nine healthy control subjects. Whole-head DTI data were analysed without an a-priori hypothesis. Voxelwise statistical analy…