Department of Medical Imaging Center, Affiliated Hospital of Qinghai University, Xining, Qinghai, China.
Sci Rep. 2019 Dec 18;9(1):19334. doi: 10.1038/s41598-019-55498-9.
In chronic mountain sickness (CMS) patients, the structure of the brain, memory and cognition are often irreversibly damaged by chronic hypoxia due to red blood cell overcompensation, elevated haemoglobin and blood stasis. In this study, we aimed to evaluate this damage using diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) and to study the correlations among the fractional anisotropy (FA),the apparent diffusion coefficient (ADC) value, the severity index of CMS and the simple Mental State Examination (MMSE) score in CMS patients. A total of 17 patients with CMS and 15 healthy controls were recruited for conventional brain magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and DTI scans, and ADC images were reconstructed along with FA and FA colour maps. The FA and ADC values of the selected regions of interest (ROIs) were measured and compared. The FA and ADC values were also compared with the haemoglobin (Hb) and MMSE scores. CMS patients are prone to intracranial ischaemia, infarction and haemorrhage. Multiple structural changes occur in the brain of CMS patients, and these changes are related to the severity of the disease and cognitive function variation. The white matter fibre bundles of CMS patients showed no obvious damage, except in the ischaemic site.
在慢性山病（CMS）患者中，由于红细胞过度代偿、血红蛋白升高和血液淤滞，慢性缺氧常导致大脑结构、记忆和认知功能不可逆转地受损。本研究旨在通过弥散张量成像（DTI）评估这种损伤，并研究 CMS 患者的各向异性分数（FA）、表观扩散系数（ADC）值、CMS 严重指数与简易精神状态检查（MMSE）评分之间的相关性。共招募了 17 名 CMS 患者和 15 名健康对照者进行常规脑磁共振成像（MRI）和 DTI 扫描，并重建 ADC 图像以及 FA 和 FA 彩色图谱。测量并比较了选定感兴趣区（ROI）的 FA 和 ADC 值。还将 FA 和 ADC 值与血红蛋白（Hb）和 MMSE 评分进行了比较。CMS 患者易发生颅内缺血、梗死和出血。CMS 患者的大脑会发生多种结构变化，这些变化与疾病严重程度和认知功能变化有关。CMS 患者的白质纤维束除了在缺血部位外没有明显损伤。
