Department of Neurology, Haeundae Paik Hospital, Inje University College of Medicine, Haeundae-ro 875, Haeundae-gu, Busan, 48108, South Korea.
Department of Radiology, Haeundae Paik Hospital, Inje University College of Medicine, Busan, South Korea.
Neuroradiology. 2022 Jul;64(7):1351-1357. doi: 10.1007/s00234-021-02878-6. Epub 2022 Jan 11.
The hypothalamus plays a pivotal role in the pathogenesis of narcolepsy. This study aimed to evaluate the differences in the structural covariance network of thehypothalamus based on volume differences between patients with narcolepsy and healthy controls.
We retrospectively enrolled 15 patients with narcolepsy and 19 healthy controls.All subjects underwent three-dimensional T1-weighted imaging using a 3-T magnetic resonance imaging scanner. Hypothalamic subunits were segmented, and the volumes of individual hypothalamic subunits were obtained using the FreeSurfer program. Subsequently, we conducted a structural covariance network analysis of the subunit volumes with graph theory using the BRAPH program in patients with narcolepsy and in healthy controls.
There were no significant differences in the volumes of the entire right and left hypothalamus nor in the hypothalamic subunit between patients with narcolepsy and healthy controls. However, we found significant differences in the structural covariance network in the hypothalamus between these groups. The characteristic path length was significantly lower in patients with narcolepsy than in healthy controls (1.698 vs. 2.831, p = 0.001). However, other network measures did not differ between patients with narcolepsy and healthy controls.
We found that the structural covariance network of the hypothalamus, as assessed from the subunit volumes of hypothalamic regions using a graph theoretical analysis, is different in patients with narcolepsy compared to healthy controls. These findings may contribute to the understanding of the pathogenesis of narcolepsy.
下丘脑在发作性睡病的发病机制中起着关键作用。本研究旨在评估基于发作性睡病患者和健康对照者下丘脑体积差异的下丘脑结构协变网络的差异。
我们回顾性纳入了 15 名发作性睡病患者和 19 名健康对照者。所有受试者均使用 3.0T 磁共振成像扫描仪进行三维 T1 加权成像。使用 FreeSurfer 程序对下丘脑亚区进行分割，并获得各个下丘脑亚区的体积。随后，我们使用 BRAPH 程序在发作性睡病患者和健康对照者中进行了基于图形理论的亚区体积结构协变网络分析。
发作性睡病患者和健康对照者的整个右侧和左侧下丘脑体积以及下丘脑亚区体积均无显著差异。然而，我们发现这些组之间的下丘脑结构协变网络存在显著差异。发作性睡病患者的特征路径长度明显低于健康对照组（1.698 比 2.831，p=0.001）。然而，发作性睡病患者和健康对照者的其他网络指标没有差异。
我们发现，使用图形理论分析评估下丘脑区域的下丘脑亚区体积，发作性睡病患者的下丘脑结构协变网络与健康对照组不同。这些发现可能有助于理解发作性睡病的发病机制。
