Sharma Khema R, Sheriff Sulaiman, Maudsley Andrew, Govind Varan
Department of Neurology, University of Miami, Miller School of Medicine, Miami, FL 33136, USA.
J Neuroimaging. 2013 Jul;23(3):368-74. doi: 10.1111/j.1552-6569.2011.00679.x. Epub 2012 Jan 24.
To assess the involvement of basal ganglia and thalamus in patients with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) using diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) method.
Fourteen definite-ALS patients and 12 age-matched controls underwent whole brain DTI on a 3T scanner. Mean-diffusivity (MD) and fractional anisotropy (FA) were obtained bilaterally from the basal ganglia and thalamus in the regions-of-interest (ROIs).
The MD was significantly higher (P < .02) in basal ganglia and thalamus in patients with ALS compared with controls. Correspondingly, the FA was significantly lower (P < .02) in these structures, except in caudate (P = .04) and putamen (P = .06) in patients compared with controls. There were mild to strong correlations (r = .3-.7) between the DTI measures of basal ganglia and finger-tap, foot-tap, and lip-and-tongue movement rate.
The increased MD in basal ganglia and thalamus and decreased FA in globus pallidus and thalamus are indicative of neuronal loss or dysfunction in these structures.
采用扩散张量成像（DTI）方法评估肌萎缩侧索硬化症（ALS）患者基底神经节和丘脑的受累情况。
14例明确诊断的ALS患者和12例年龄匹配的对照者在3T扫描仪上进行全脑DTI检查。在感兴趣区（ROI）双侧获取基底神经节和丘脑的平均扩散率（MD）和各向异性分数（FA）。
与对照组相比，ALS患者基底神经节和丘脑的MD显著更高（P < 0.02）。相应地，与对照组相比，除患者的尾状核（P = 0.04）和壳核（P = 0.06）外，这些结构中的FA显著更低（P < 0.02）。基底神经节的DTI测量值与手指轻敲、足轻敲以及唇舌运动速度之间存在轻度至强相关性（r = 0.3 - 0.7）。
基底神经节和丘脑的MD增加以及苍白球和丘脑的FA降低表明这些结构中存在神经元丢失或功能障碍。
