School of Artificial Intelligence, Beijing University of Posts and Telecommunications, No.10 Xitucheng Road, Haidian District, Beijing, 100876, China.
Queen Mary School Hainan, Beijing University of Posts and Telecommunications, Hainan Lingshui Li'an International Education Innovation Pilot Zone, Lingshui, Hainan, 572426, China.
J Headache Pain. 2024 Nov 4;25(1):191. doi: 10.1186/s10194-024-01899-9.
New daily persistent headache (NDPH) is a rare primary headache disorder characterized by daily and persistent sudden onset headaches. Specific abnormalities in gray matter and white matter structure are associated with pain, but have not been well studied in NDPH. The objective of this work is to explore the fiber tracts and structural connectivity, which can help reveal unique gray and white matter structural abnormalities in NDPH.
The regional radiomics similarity networks were calculated from T1 weighted (T1w) MRI to depict the gray matter structure. The fiber connectivity matrices weighted by diffusion metrics like fractional anisotropy (FA), mean diffusivity (MD) and radial diffusivity (RD) were built, meanwhile the fiber tracts were segmented by anatomically-guided superficial fiber segmentation (Anat-SFSeg) method to explore the white matter structure from diffusion MRI. The considerable different neuroimaging features between NDPH and healthy controls (HC) were extracted from the connectivity and tract-based analyses. Finally, decision tree regression was used to predict the clinical scores (i.e. pain intensity) from the above neuroimaging features.
T1w and diffusion MRI data were available in 51 participants after quality control: 22 patients with NDPH and 29 HCs. Significantly decreased morphological similarity was found between the right superior frontal gyrus and right hippocampus. The superficial white matter (SWM) showed significantly decreased FA in fiber tracts including the right superficial-frontal, left superficial-occipital, bilateral superficial-occipital-temporal (Sup-OT) and right superficial-temporal, meanwhile significant increased RD was found in the left Sup-OT. For the fiber connectivity, NDPH showed significantly decreased FA in the bilateral basal ganglion and temporal lobe, increased MD in the right frontal lobe, and increased RD in the right frontal lobe and left temporal-occipital lobe. Clinical scores could be predicted dominantly by the above significantly different neuroimaging features through decision tree regression.
Our research indicates the structural abnormalities of SWM and the neural pathways projected between regions like right hippocampus and left caudate nucleus, along with morphological similarity changes between the right superior frontal gyrus and right hippocampus, constitute the pathological features of NDPH. The decision tree regression demonstrates correlations between these structural changes and clinical scores.
新的每日持续性头痛（NDPH）是一种罕见的原发性头痛障碍，其特征为每日持续性突发性头痛。灰质和白质结构的特定异常与疼痛有关，但在 NDPH 中尚未得到很好的研究。本研究旨在探索纤维束和结构连接，这有助于揭示 NDPH 中独特的灰质和白质结构异常。
从 T1 加权（T1w）MRI 计算区域放射组学相似性网络以描绘灰质结构。构建基于扩散指标（如各向异性分数（FA）、平均扩散度（MD）和径向扩散度（RD））加权的纤维连接矩阵，同时通过解剖学引导的浅层纤维分割（Anat-SFSeg）方法分割纤维束，从弥散 MRI 中探索白质结构。从连接和基于束的分析中提取 NDPH 和健康对照组（HC）之间存在显著差异的神经影像学特征。最后，决策树回归用于从上述神经影像学特征预测临床评分（即疼痛强度）。
经过质量控制，51 名参与者的 T1w 和弥散 MRI 数据可用：22 名 NDPH 患者和 29 名 HC。发现右侧额上回和右侧海马之间的形态相似性显著降低。浅层白质（SWM）在包括右侧额上、左侧枕上、双侧额枕颞（Sup-OT）和右侧额颞的纤维束中显示出显著降低的 FA，同时在左侧 Sup-OT 中发现显著增加的 RD。对于纤维连接，NDPH 表现为双侧基底节和颞叶的 FA 显著降低，右侧额叶的 MD 增加，右侧额叶和左侧颞枕叶的 RD 增加。通过决策树回归，临床评分可以主要由上述存在显著差异的神经影像学特征预测。
我们的研究表明，SWM 的结构异常以及右侧海马和左侧尾状核等区域之间的神经通路，以及右侧额上回和右侧海马之间的形态相似性变化，构成了 NDPH 的病理特征。决策树回归表明这些结构变化与临床评分之间存在相关性。
