Department of Neurology, Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory for Diagnosis and Treatment of Major Neurological Diseases, National Key Clinical Department and Key Discipline of Neurology, The First Affiliated Hospital, Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou, 510080, China.
Department of Medical Imaging, State Key Laboratory of Oncology in Southern China, Collaborative Innovation Center for Cancer Medicine, Sun Yat-Sen University Cancer Center, Guangzhou, 510060, China.
BMC Neurol. 2024 May 24;24(1):174. doi: 10.1186/s12883-024-03680-6.
The thalamus has a central role in the pathophysiology of idiopathic cervical dystonia (iCD); however, the nature of alterations occurring within this structure remain largely elusive. Using a structural magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) approach, we examined whether abnormalities differ across thalamic subregions/nuclei in patients with iCD.
Structural MRI data were collected from 37 patients with iCD and 37 healthy controls (HCs). Automatic parcellation of 25 thalamic nuclei in each hemisphere was performed based on the FreeSurfer program. Differences in thalamic nuclei volumes between groups and their relationships with clinical information were analysed in patients with iCD.
Compared to HCs, a significant reduction in thalamic nuclei volume primarily in central medial, centromedian, lateral geniculate, medial geniculate, medial ventral, paracentral, parafascicular, paratenial, and ventromedial nuclei was found in patients with iCD (P < 0.05, false discovery rate corrected). However, no statistically significant correlations were observed between altered thalamic nuclei volumes and clinical characteristics in iCD group.
This study highlights the neurobiological mechanisms of iCD related to thalamic volume changes.
丘脑在特发性颈肌张力障碍（iCD）的病理生理学中起着核心作用；然而，该结构内发生的改变的性质在很大程度上仍难以捉摸。本研究采用结构磁共振成像（MRI）方法，研究 iCD 患者丘脑的亚区/核是否存在异常。
从 37 名 iCD 患者和 37 名健康对照者（HCs）中收集结构 MRI 数据。基于 FreeSurfer 程序对每个半球的 25 个丘脑核自动进行分区。分析 iCD 患者组的丘脑核体积差异及其与临床信息的关系。
与 HCs 相比，iCD 患者的丘脑核体积显著减小，主要位于中央内侧核、中央中核、外侧膝状体核、内侧膝状体核、内侧腹侧核、中央旁核、束旁核、帕拉塞尔纳核和腹内侧核（P<0.05，经 False Discovery Rate 校正）。然而，在 iCD 组中，未观察到改变的丘脑核体积与临床特征之间存在统计学显著相关性。
本研究强调了与丘脑体积变化相关的 iCD 的神经生物学机制。
