Department of Computer Science, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, Tennessee, USA.
University of Texas at Austin, Austin, Texas, USA.
Hum Brain Mapp. 2023 Mar;44(4):1417-1431. doi: 10.1002/hbm.26125. Epub 2022 Nov 21.
The striatum has traditionally been the focus of Huntington's disease research due to the primary insult to this region and its central role in motor symptoms. Beyond the striatum, evidence of cortical alterations caused by Huntington's disease has surfaced. However, findings are not coherent between studies which have used cortical thickness for Huntington's disease since it is the well-established cortical metric of interest in other diseases. In this study, we propose a more comprehensive approach to cortical morphology in Huntington's disease using cortical thickness, sulcal depth, and local gyrification index. Our results show consistency with prior findings in cortical thickness, including its limitations. Our comparison between cortical thickness and local gyrification index underscores the complementary nature of these two measures-cortical thickness detects changes in the sensorimotor and posterior areas while local gyrification index identifies insular differences. Since local gyrification index and cortical thickness measures detect changes in different regions, the two used in tandem could provide a clinically relevant measure of disease progression. Our findings suggest that differences in insular regions may correspond to earlier neurodegeneration and may provide a complementary cortical measure for detection of subtle early cortical changes due to Huntington's disease.
纹状体一直是亨廷顿病研究的焦点，因为它是该区域的主要病变部位，也是运动症状的核心。除了纹状体之外，还出现了由亨廷顿病引起的皮质改变的证据。然而，由于皮质厚度是其他疾病中公认的感兴趣的皮质指标，因此使用皮质厚度的研究结果之间并不一致。在这项研究中，我们使用皮质厚度、脑沟深度和局部脑回指数，提出了一种更全面的亨廷顿病皮质形态学方法。我们的结果与皮质厚度的先前发现一致，包括其局限性。我们在皮质厚度和局部脑回指数之间的比较强调了这两种测量方法的互补性——皮质厚度检测感觉运动和后区的变化，而局部脑回指数识别岛叶差异。由于局部脑回指数和皮质厚度的测量方法检测到不同区域的变化，因此这两种方法联合使用可以提供一种与临床相关的疾病进展测量方法。我们的发现表明，岛叶区域的差异可能与早期神经退行性变相对应，并且由于亨廷顿病，可能为检测细微的早期皮质变化提供了一种补充的皮质测量方法。
