OBJECTIVETo investigate the asymmetry of fibers in the posterior limb of the internal capsule with diffusion tensor imaging.

METHODSTwenty-nine volunteers (right-handers: 20, left-handers: 9) were enrolled in this study. All the data were obtained using a 1.5 tesla scanner (Signa EXCITE II. GE Medical Systems). The parameters including apparent diffusion coefficient (ADC), fractional anisotropy (FA) and eigenvalue lambda1, lambda2, lambda3 were acquired from the posterior limb of the internal capsule in both hemisphere of brain, and paired t-test was used for statistical differences between the hemisphere.

RESULTSNo differences of ADC and lambda1 were found among the right-handers, but FA in the internal capsule of left hemisphere was larger than that in the right (0.72+/-0.03 compared with 0.70 +/-0.04, P=0.001), and lambda2, lambda3 in the left was lower than that in the right [(4.39+/-0.32 compared with 4.50+/-0.33)x10(-3) mm(2)/s, P=0.016 and (2.19 +/-0.34 compared with 2.29 +/-0.40)x10(-3) mm(2)/s, P=0.024, respectively]. In contrast to the results among the right-handers, all parameters in the left-handers showed no statistical differences.

CONCLUSIONThe fibers in the posterior limb of the internal capsule of left hemisphere might be well sheathed with myelin among right-handers.