Yang Ming, Yang Ya-ru, Li Hui-jun, Lu Xue-song, Shi Yong-mei, Liu Bin, Chen Hua-jun, Teng Gao-jun
Department of Radiology, Zhongda Hospital, Southeast University, Nanjing 210009, China.
Department of Rehabilitation, Zhongda Hospital, Southeast University, Nanjing 210009, China.
Comput Math Methods Med. 2014;2014:370849. doi: 10.1155/2014/370849. Epub 2014 Jan 15.
Structural integrity of the corticospinal tract (CST) after stroke is closely linked to the degree of motor impairment. However, current methods for measurement of fractional atrophy (FA) of CST based on region of interest (ROI) are time-consuming and open to bias. Here, we used tract-based spatial statistics (TBSS) together with a CST template with healthy volunteers to quantify structural integrity of CST automatically. Two groups of patients after ischemic stroke were enrolled, group 1 (10 patients, 7 men, and Fugl-Meyer assessment (FMA) scores ⩽ 50) and group 2 (12 patients, 12 men, and FMA scores = 100). CST of FA(ipsi), FA(contra), and FA(ratio) was compared between the two groups. Relative to group 2, FA was decreased in group 1 in the ipsilesional CST (P < 0.01), as well as the FA(ratio) (P < 0.01). There was no significant difference between the two subgroups in the contralesional CST (P = 0.23). Compared with contralesional CST, FA of ipsilesional CST decreased in group 1 (P < 0.01). These results suggest that the automated method used in our study could detect a surrogate biomarker to quantify the CST after stroke, which would facilitate implementation of clinical practice.
中风后皮质脊髓束（CST）的结构完整性与运动功能障碍程度密切相关。然而，目前基于感兴趣区域（ROI）测量CST分数萎缩（FA）的方法既耗时又容易产生偏差。在此，我们将基于体素的空间统计学（TBSS）与健康志愿者的CST模板相结合，以自动量化CST的结构完整性。纳入两组缺血性中风患者，第1组（10例患者，7例男性，Fugl-Meyer评估（FMA）评分≤50）和第2组（12例患者，12例男性，FMA评分=100）。比较两组之间患侧FA（FA(ipsi)）、健侧FA（FA(contra)）和FA比值（FA(ratio)）。与第2组相比，第1组患侧CST的FA降低（P<0.01），FA(ratio)也降低（P<0.01）。两组在健侧CST方面无显著差异（P=0.23）。与健侧CST相比，第1组患侧CST的FA降低（P<0.01）。这些结果表明，我们研究中使用的自动化方法可以检测到一种替代生物标志物，以量化中风后的CST，这将有助于临床实践的实施。
