Department of Radiology, Hospital Universitário Clementino Fraga Filho, Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, Rio de Janeiro, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
Department of Radiology, Clínica de Diagnóstico por Imagem-Diagnósticos da America (CDPI-DASA), Rio de Janeiro, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
PLoS One. 2021 Dec 10;16(12):e0261208. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0261208. eCollection 2021.
Changes in cerebral cortical regions occur in HIV-infected patients, even in those with mild neurocognitive disorders. Working memory / attention is one of the most affected cognitive domain in these patients, worsening their quality of life. Our objective was to assess whether cortical thickness differs between HIV-infected patients with and without working memory deficit.
Forty-one adult HIV-infected patients with and without working memory deficit were imaged on a 1.5 T scanner. Working memory deficit was classified by composite Z scores for performance on the Digits and Letter-Number Sequencing subtests of the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale (third edition; WAIS-III). Cortical thickness was determined using FreeSurfer software. Differences in mean cortical thickness between groups, corrected for multiple comparisons using Monte-Carlo simulation, were examined using the query design estimate contrast tool of the FreeSurfer software.
Greater cortical thickness in left pars opercularis of the inferior frontal gyrus, and rostral and caudal portions of the left middle frontal gyrus (cluster 1; p = .004), and left superior frontal gyrus (cluster 2; p = .004) was observed in HIV-infected patients with working memory deficit compared with those without such deficit. Negative correlations were found between WAIS-III-based Z scores and cortical thickness in the two clusters (cluster 1: ρ = -0.59; cluster 2: ρ = -0.47).
HIV-infected patients with working memory deficit have regions of greater thickness in the left frontal cortices compared with those without such deficit, which may reflect increased synaptic contacts and/or an inflammatory response related to the damage caused by HIV infection.
即使在轻度神经认知障碍的 HIV 感染者中，也会发生大脑皮质区域的变化。工作记忆/注意力是这些患者受影响最严重的认知领域之一，降低了他们的生活质量。我们的目的是评估 HIV 感染者中是否存在工作记忆缺陷的患者与无工作记忆缺陷的患者之间皮质厚度是否存在差异。
在 1.5T 扫描仪上对 41 名成年 HIV 感染者（有和无工作记忆缺陷）进行成像。通过韦氏成人智力测验（第三版；WAIS-III）中数字和数字-字母序列测验的表现的综合 Z 分数来对工作记忆缺陷进行分类。使用 FreeSurfer 软件确定皮质厚度。使用 FreeSurfer 软件的查询设计估计对比工具，检查组间平均皮质厚度的差异，使用蒙特卡罗模拟校正多重比较。
与无工作记忆缺陷的患者相比，有工作记忆缺陷的 HIV 感染者的左额下回的左侧脑岛盖部、左额中回的头侧和尾侧部分（簇 1；p =.004）和左额上回（簇 2；p =.004）的皮质厚度较大。在两个簇中，WAIS-III 基于 Z 分数的得分与皮质厚度之间存在负相关（簇 1：ρ = -0.59；簇 2：ρ = -0.47）。
与无工作记忆缺陷的患者相比，有工作记忆缺陷的 HIV 感染者的左额叶皮质区域的厚度较大，这可能反映了与 HIV 感染引起的损伤相关的突触接触增加和/或炎症反应。
