Wartolowska Karolina, Hough Morgan G, Jenkinson Mark, Andersson Jesper, Wordsworth B Paul, Tracey Irene
Oxford Centre for Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging of the Brain and University of Oxford, Oxford, UK.
Arthritis Rheum. 2012 Feb;64(2):371-9. doi: 10.1002/art.33326.
To investigate whether structural changes are present in the cortical and subcortical gray matter of the brains of patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA).
We used two surface-based style morphometry analysis programs and a voxel-based style analysis program to compare high-resolution structural magnetic resonance imaging data obtained for 31 RA patients and 25 age- and sex-matched healthy control subjects.
We observed an increase in gray matter content in the basal ganglia of RA patients, mainly in the nucleus accumbens and caudate nucleus. There were no differences in the cortical gray matter. Moreover, patients had a smaller intracranial volume.
Our results suggest that RA is associated with changes in the subcortical gray matter rather than with cortical gray matter atrophy. Since the basal ganglia play an important role in motor control as well as in pain processing and in modulating behavior in response to aversive stimuli, we suggest that these changes may result from altered motor control or prolonged pain processing. The differences in brain volume may reflect either generalized atrophy or differences in brain development.
研究类风湿关节炎（RA）患者大脑皮质和皮质下灰质是否存在结构变化。
我们使用了两个基于表面的形态计量分析程序和一个基于体素的分析程序，比较了31例RA患者以及25名年龄和性别匹配的健康对照者的高分辨率结构磁共振成像数据。
我们观察到RA患者基底节灰质含量增加，主要是伏隔核和尾状核。皮质灰质没有差异。此外，患者的颅内体积较小。
我们的结果表明，RA与皮质下灰质变化有关，而非皮质灰质萎缩。由于基底节在运动控制、疼痛处理以及调节对厌恶刺激的行为反应中起重要作用，我们认为这些变化可能是运动控制改变或疼痛处理时间延长所致。脑容量的差异可能反映了广泛性萎缩或脑发育差异。
