Buffalo Neuroimaging Analysis Center, Department of Neurology, Jacobs School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences, University at Buffalo, State University of New York, Buffalo, New York.
Center for Biomedical Imaging, Clinical and Translational Science Institute, University at Buffalo, The State University of New York, Buffalo, New York.
Hum Brain Mapp. 2018 Oct;39(10):4007-4017. doi: 10.1002/hbm.24227. Epub 2018 Jun 19.
Thalamic white matter (WM) injury in multiple sclerosis (MS) remains relatively poorly understood. Combining multiple imaging modalities, sensitive to different tissue properties, may aid in further characterizing thalamic damage. Forty-five MS patients and 17 demographically-matched healthy controls (HC) were scanned with 3T MRI to obtain quantitative measures of diffusivity and magnetic susceptibility. Participants underwent cognitive evaluation with the Brief International Cognitive Assessment for Multiple Sclerosis battery. Tract-based spatial statistics identified thalamic WM. Non-parametric combination (NPC) analysis was used to perform joint inference on fractional anisotropy (FA), mean diffusivity (MD) and magnetic susceptibility measures. The association of surrounding WM lesions and thalamic WM pathology was investigated with lesion probability mapping. Compared to HCs, the greatest extent of thalamic WM damage was reflected by the combination of increased MD and decreased magnetic susceptibility (63.0% of thalamic WM, peak p = .001). Controlling for thalamic volume resulted in decreased FA and magnetic susceptibility (34.1%, peak p = .004) as showing the greatest extent. In MS patients, the most widespread association with information processing speed was found with the combination of MD and magnetic susceptibility (67.6%, peak p = .0005), although this was not evident after controlling for thalamic volume. For memory measures, MD alone yielded the most widespread associations (45.9%, peak p = .012 or 76.7%, peak p = .001), even after considering thalamic volume, albeit with smaller percentages. White matter lesions were related to decreased FA (peak p = .0063) and increased MD (peak p = .007), but not magnetic susceptibility, of thalamic WM. Our study highlights the complex nature of thalamic pathology in MS.
多发性硬化症（MS）的丘脑白质（WM）损伤仍然知之甚少。结合多种对不同组织特性敏感的成像方式，可能有助于进一步描述丘脑损伤。对 45 名 MS 患者和 17 名年龄匹配的健康对照者（HC）进行了 3T MRI 扫描，以获得扩散和磁化率的定量测量值。参与者接受了简短的国际多发性硬化症认知评估（Brief International Cognitive Assessment for Multiple Sclerosis battery）认知评估。基于体素的空间统计学方法确定了丘脑 WM。使用非参数组合（NPC）分析对各向异性分数（FA）、平均扩散系数（MD）和磁化率进行联合推断。用病灶概率图研究了周围 WM 病灶与丘脑 WM 病变的相关性。与 HC 相比，MD 增加和磁化率降低的组合反映了最大程度的丘脑 WM 损伤（63.0%的丘脑 WM，峰值 p =.001）。控制丘脑体积后，FA 和磁化率降低（34.1%，峰值 p =.004）显示最大程度的损伤。在 MS 患者中，与信息处理速度最广泛相关的是 MD 和磁化率的组合（67.6%，峰值 p =.0005），尽管在考虑丘脑体积后，这种相关性并不明显。对于记忆测量，MD 单独产生最广泛的相关性（45.9%，峰值 p =.012 或 76.7%，峰值 p =.001），即使考虑到丘脑体积，尽管相关性较小。WM 病变与丘脑 WM 的 FA 降低（峰值 p =.0063）和 MD 增加（峰值 p =.007）相关，但与磁化率无关。我们的研究强调了 MS 中丘脑病变的复杂性质。
