الفهرس 
IntroductionOnly 14 pages are availabe for public view
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Abstract
Autism spectrum disorder is a large heterogeneous constellation of disorders with overlapping symptoms and clinical features, that extends throughout life span. The diagnosis of ASD is based on clinical assessment and fulfilling DSM-5 criteria and severity assessment using CARS with no lab, physiologic or radiologic diagnostic studies available yet.
To the best of our knowledge no studies were conducted in Egypt that aimed at using MRI assessment with volumetric 3D-T1 and DTI to investigate differences in ASD brain compared to TDC brain. So, this study was designed aiming to explore the underlying neuropathology of ASD and trying to investigate the differences in brain volume, white matter microstructure and structural connectivity using volumetric MRI and DTI assessment, as well as localize the affected areas as a step towards better understanding of the disease and providing a database that can help in the future in setting diagnostic criteria using MRI, guiding therapy and monitoring treatment out comes.
In this case control study that took place in Suez Canal University hospitals, 20 children diagnosed with ASD in psychiatry clinic according to DSM-5 criteria, with severity assessed using CARS, were included, with other 20 TDC recruited as control group from radiology department. All subjects underwent MRI assessment. Oral chloral hydrate was administered to non-cooperative subjects as a sedating agent. High resolution 3D-T1 and DTI sequences were obtained.
The 3D-T1 weighted images were uploaded to volbrain and volbrain 2.0 pipeline was used to provide detailed report (appendix 2) for brain macrostructure and subcortical segmentation. Independent samples t-test was used to test significance of differences between the means of the two groups
DTI images were processed using FSL, where tract based spatial statistics (TBSS) analysis used, and independent samples t-test was used to test statistically significant differences between mean FA values (appendix 1).
The obtained results showed statistically significant larger total brain volumes in ASD group compared to TDC group. This increase included different structures and areas of the brain, with the increase in white matter being greater