Lu Chia-Feng, Wu Yu-Te, Teng Shin, Wang Po-Shan, Tu Pei-Chi, Su Tung-Ping, Jao Chi-Wen, Li Cheng-Ta
Department of Biomedical Imaging and Radiological Sciences, National Yang-Ming University, Taipei 11221, Taiwan
Institute of Biophotonics, National Yang-Ming University, Taipei 11221, Taiwan
Brain Sci. 2019 Sep 19;9(9):240. doi: 10.3390/brainsci9090240.
Bipolar disorder (BD) is a genetically and phenotypically complex psychiatric disease. Although previous studies have suggested that the relatives of BD patients have an increased risk of experiencing affective disturbances, most relatives who have similar genotypes may not manifest the disorder. We aim to identify the neuroimaging alterations-specifically, the cortical folding structures of the anterior limbic network (ALN)-in BD patients and their siblings, compared to healthy controls. The shared alterations in patients and their siblings may indicate the hereditary predisposition of BD, and the altered cortical structures unique to BD patients may be a probe of BD expression. High-resolution, T1-weighted magnetic resonance images for 17 euthymic patients with BD, 17 unaffected siblings of BD patients, and 22 healthy controls were acquired. We categorized the cortical regions within the ALN into sulcal and gyral areas, based on the shape index, followed by the measurement of the folding degree, using the curvedness. Our results revealed that the changes in cortical folding in the orbitofrontal and temporal regions were associated with a hereditary predisposition to BD. Cortical folding structures in multiple regions of the ALN, particularly in the striatal-thalamic circuit and anterior cingulate cortex, could be used to differentiate BD patients from healthy controls and unaffected siblings. We concluded that the cortical folding structures of ALN can provide potential biomarkers for clinical diagnosis of BD and differentiation from the unaffected siblings.
双相情感障碍（BD）是一种遗传和表型复杂的精神疾病。尽管先前的研究表明，BD患者的亲属患情感障碍的风险增加，但大多数具有相似基因型的亲属可能并未表现出该疾病。我们旨在确定BD患者及其同胞与健康对照相比的神经影像学改变，特别是前边缘网络（ALN）的皮质折叠结构。患者及其同胞的共同改变可能表明BD的遗传易感性，而BD患者特有的皮质结构改变可能是BD表达的一个指标。获取了17名双相情感障碍缓解期患者、17名BD患者的未患病同胞以及22名健康对照的高分辨率T1加权磁共振图像。我们根据形状指数将ALN内的皮质区域分为脑沟和脑回区域，然后使用曲率测量折叠程度。我们的结果显示，眶额和颞叶区域的皮质折叠变化与BD的遗传易感性有关。ALN多个区域的皮质折叠结构，特别是纹状体 - 丘脑回路和前扣带回皮质的结构，可用于区分BD患者与健康对照和未患病同胞。我们得出结论，ALN的皮质折叠结构可为BD的临床诊断以及与未患病同胞的区分提供潜在的生物标志物。
