Identifying the white matter pathways involved in multiple sclerosis-related tremor using diffusion tensor imaging
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PROVIDER: S-EPMC10631316 | biostudies-literature | 2023 Jan
REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature
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Project description:This study set out to determine whether there is white matter involvement in essential tremor (ET), the most common movement disorder. We collected diffusion MRI and analysed differences in fractional anisotropy (FA) and mean diffusivity (MD) between ET patients and control subjects as markers of white matter integrity. We used both classical ROI-based statistics and whole-brain analysis techniques, including voxel-wise analysis with SPM5 and tract-based spatial statistics (TBSS). Using region of interest (ROI) analysis, we found increased MD bilaterally in the inferior cerebellar peduncles (ICP) and reduced FA in the right-sided ICP of ET patients. Whole-brain analyses with TBSS detected increased MD distributed in both motor and nonmotor white matter fibers of ET patients predominantly in the left parietal white matter, while there were no significant FA differences in these areas between ET patients and controls. Voxel-wise analysis with SPM detected significant increase of MD congruent with the highest probability of difference as detected by TBSS. VBM analysis of T1 images did not detect significant differences in either gray or white matter density between our study groups. In summary, we found evidence for changes in white matter MRI properties in ET. The circumscript pathology of the ICP corroborates the pathogenetic concept of the cerebellum and its projections as key structures for tremor generation in ET. Moreover, increased diffusivity in white matter structures of both hemispheres suggests widespread alterations of fiber integrity in motor and nonmotor networks in ET patients. The underlying cause of the DTI changes observed remains to be elucidated.
| S-EPMC6870356 | biostudies-literature
Project description:Background and purposeLoss of integrity in nonlesional white matter occurs as a fundamental feature of multiple sclerosis in adults. The purpose of our study was to evaluate DTI-derived measures of white matter microstructure in children with MS compared with age- and sex-matched controls by using tract-based spatial statistics.Materials and methodsFourteen consecutive pediatric patients with MS (11 female/3 male; mean age, 15.1 ± 1.6 years; age range, 12-17 years) and age- and sex-matched healthy subjects (11 female/3 male; mean age, 14.8 ± 1.7 years) were included in the study. After we obtained DTI sequences, data processing was performed by using tract-based spatial statistics.ResultsCompared with healthy age- and sex-matched controls, children with multiple sclerosis showed a global decrease in mean fractional anisotropy (P ≤ .001), with a concomitant increase in mean (P < .001), radial (P < .05), and axial diffusivity (P < .001). The most pronounced fractional anisotropy value decrease in patients with MS was found in the splenium of the corpus callosum (P < .001). An additional decrease in fractional anisotropy was identified in the right temporal and right and left parietal regions (P < .001). Fractional anisotropy of the white matter skeleton was related to disease duration and may, therefore, serve as a diagnostic marker.ConclusionsThe microstructure of white matter is altered early in the disease course in childhood multiple sclerosis.
| S-EPMC7965410 | biostudies-literature
Project description:Whether longitudinal diffusion tensor MRI imaging (DTI) can capture disease progression in patients with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) is unclear. The primary goal of this study was to determine if DTI detects progression of the corticospinal tracts (CST) degeneration in ALS. Seventeen ALS patients and 19 age- and gender-matched healthy controls were scanned with DTI at baseline for cross-sectional analyses. For longitudinal analyses, the ALS patients had repeat DTI scans after eight months. Tractography of the CST was used to guide regions-of-interest (ROI) analysis and complemented by a voxelwise analysis. Cross-sectional study found that baseline FA of the right superior CST was markedly reduced in ALS patients compared to controls. The FA reductions in this region correlated with the disease severity in ALS patients. Longitudinal study found that FA change rate of the right superior CST significantly declined over time. In conclusion, longitudinal DTI study captures progression of upper motor fiber degeneration in ALS. DTI can be useful for monitoring ALS progression and efficacy of treatment interventions.
| S-EPMC3804304 | biostudies-literature
Project description:BackgroundThe results of recent diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) studies on amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) are inconclusive and controversial. We performed a voxel-based meta-analysis to identify a statistical consensus among published DTI studies of altered white matter (WM) microarchitecture in ALS.MethodsA systematic search was conducted for relevant studies that used voxel-wise analyses of WM microarchitecture in patients with ALS. Anisotropic effect size-signed differential mapping (AES-SDM) was applied to analyze fractional anisotropy (FA) differences between ALS patients and healthy controls. Meta-regression analysis was used to explore the effects of clinical characteristics on WM integrity in patients with ALS.ResultsA total of 14 studies with 16 datasets that included 396 patients and 360 healthy controls were identified. The pooled meta-analysis revealed that patients with ALS exhibited significant FA reductions in two clusters relative to healthy controls. The largest cluster exhibited a peak coordinate in the left corona radiata, extending to the body and splenium of the corpus callosum, left superior longitudinal fasciculus, posterior limb of the internal capsule, right corona radiata, and bilateral cingulate gyrus. The other cluster exhibited decreased FA in the right corticospinal tract that extended to the right cerebral peduncle. The Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis Functional Rating Scale-Revised (ALSFRS-R) score was positively correlated with the FA reduction in the left corona radiata. Mean age and illness duration were not linearly correlated with the FA reductions.ConclusionsThis study provides a thorough profile of WM microarchitecture alterations in patients with ALS and further evidence that the neuronal degeneration is not limited to the corticospinal tract but also includes extra-motor areas, which supports the view that ALS is a multisystem degenerative disorder that involves the white matter.
| S-EPMC6051469 | biostudies-literature
Project description:BackgroundAlcoholism-related deficits in cognition and emotion point toward frontal and limbic dysfunction, particularly in the right hemisphere. Prefrontal and anterior cingulate cortices are involved in cognitive and emotional functions and play critical roles in the oversight of the limbic reward system. In the present study, we examined the integrity of white matter tracts that are critical to frontal and limbic connectivity.MethodsDiffusion tensor magnetic resonance imaging (DT-MRI) was used to assess functional anisotropy (FA), a measure of white matter integrity, in 15 abstinent long-term chronic alcoholic and 15 demographically equivalent control men. Voxel-based and region-based analyses of group FA differences were applied to these scans.ResultsAlcoholic subjects had diminished frontal lobe FA in the right superior longitudinal fascicles II and III, orbitofrontal cortex white matter, and cingulum bundle, but not in corresponding left hemisphere regions. These right frontal and cingulum white matter regional FA measures provided 97% correct group discrimination. Working Memory scores positively correlated with superior longitudinal fascicle III FA measures in control subjects only.ConclusionsThe findings demonstrate white matter microstructure deficits in abstinent alcoholic men in several right hemisphere tracts connecting prefrontal and limbic systems. These white matter deficits may contribute to underlying dysfunction in memory, emotion, and reward response in alcoholism.
| S-EPMC4105344 | biostudies-literature
Project description:OBJECTIVES:Idiopathic-generalized epilepsy (IGE) is currently considered to be a genetic disease without structural alterations on conventional MRI. However, voxel-based morphometry has shown abnormalities in IGE. Another method to analyze the microstructure of the brain is diffusion-tensor imaging (DTI). We sought to clarify which structural alterations are present in IGE and the most frequent subsyndrome juvenile myoclonic epilepsy (JME). EXPERIMENTAL DESIGN:We studied 25 patients (13 IGE and 12 JME) and 44 healthy controls with DTI. Fractional anisotropy (FA), mean diffusivity (MD), axial and radial diffusivity (AD/RD) were calculated and group differences were analyzed using tract-based spatial statistics (TBSS). Additionally we performed a target-based classification of TBSS results based on the Freesurfer cortical regions. PRINCIPLE OBSERVATIONS: TBSS showed widespread FA reductions as well as MD and RD increases in patients compared to controls. Affected areas were corpus callosum, corticospinal tract, superior and inferior longitudinal fasciculus and supplementary motor regions. No significant differences were found between JME and IGE subgroups. The target-based classification confirmed a particular involvement of the superior frontal gyrus (mesiofrontal area) in IGE/ME. CONCLUSIONS:IGE and JME patients showed clear microstructural alterations in several large white matter tracts. Similar findings have been reported in rodent models of IGE. Previous, region-of-interest-based DTI studies may have under-estimated the spatial extent of structural loss associated with generalized epilepsy. The comparison of clinically defined JME and IGE groups revealed no significant DTI differences in our cohort.
| S-EPMC6869818 | biostudies-literature
Project description:Multiple functional methods including functional magnetic resonance imaging, transcranial magnetic stimulation, and positron emission tomography have shown cortical reorganization in response to blindness. We investigated microanatomical correlates of this reorganization using diffusion tensor imaging and diffusion tensor tractography (DTT). Five early blind (EB) were compared with 7 normally sighted (NS) persons. DTT showed marked geniculocalcarine tract differences between EB and NS participants. All EB participants showed evidence of atrophy of the geniculocortical tracts. Connections between visual cortex and the orbital frontal and temporal cortices were relatively preserved in the EB group. Importantly, no additional tracts were found in any EB participant. Significant alterations of average diffusivity and relative anisotropy were found in the white matter (WM) of the occipital lobe in the EB group. These observations suggest that blindness leads to a reorganization of cerebral WM and plausibly support the hypothesis that visual cortex functionality in blindness is primarily mediated by corticocortical as opposed to thalamocortical connections.
| S-EPMC3789517 | biostudies-literature
Project description:BackgroundAlthough increasing evidence showed the correlations between white matter hyperintensities (WMHs) and cognitive impairment, the relationship between them is still modest. Many researchers began to focus on the variation caused by the heterogeneity of WMH. We tried to explore the pathological heterogeneity in WMH by using diffusion tensor imaging (DTI), so as to provide a new insight into the future research.MethodsDiffusion weighted images (DWIs) of the brain were acquired from 73 patients with WMH and 18 healthy controls, which were then modeled by DTI. We measured fractional anisotropy (FA), mean diffusivity (MD), axial diffusivity (AD), and radial diffusivity (RD) of white matter of the periventricular frontal lobe (pFL), periventricular occipital lobe (pOL), periventricular parietal lobe (pPL) and deep centrum ovales (dCO), and grouped these measures according to the Fazekas scale. Then we compared the DTI metrics of different regions with the same Fazekas scale grade.ResultsSignificantly lower FA values (all p < 0.001), and higher MD (all p < 0.001) and RD values (all p < 0.001) were associated with WMH observed in the periventricular frontal lobe (pFL) compared to all other regions with the same Fazekas grades. The AD of WMH in the pFL was higher than that of pPL and dCO, but the differences between groups was not as high as of MD and RD, as indicated by the effect size. In the normal control group, DTI metrics between pFL and other regions were not significantly different or less significant different. The difference of DTI metrics of WMH between pPL, pOL and dCO was lower than that of normal white matter, as indicated by the effect size.ConclusionDistinct pathological processes can be revealed by DTI between frontal periventricular WMH and other regions. These processes may represent the effects of severe demyelination within the frontal periventricular WMH.
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Project description:Tuberculous meningitis (TBM) and cryptococcal meningitis (CM) are two of the most common types of chronic meningitis. This study aimed to assess whether chronic neuro-psychological sequelae are associated with micro-structure white matter (WM) damage in HIV-negative chronic meningitis. Nineteen HIV-negative TBM patients, 13 HIV-negative CM patients, and 32 sex- and age-matched healthy volunteers were evaluated and compared. The clinical relevance of WM integrity was studied using voxel-based diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) magnetic resonance imaging. All of the participants underwent complete medical and neurologic examinations, and neuro-psychological testing. Differences in DTI indices correlated with the presence of neuro-psychological rating scores and cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) analysis during the initial hospitalization. Patients with CM had more severe cognitive deficits than healthy subjects, especially in TBM. There were changes in WM integrity in several limbic regions, including the para-hippocampal gyrus and cingulate gyrus, and in the WM close to the globus pallidus. A decline in WM integrity close to the globus pallidus and anterior cingulate gyrus was associated with worse CSF analysis profiles. Poorer DTI parameters directly correlated with worse cognitive performance on follow-up. These correlations suggest that WM alterations may be involved in the psychopathology and pathophysiology of co-morbidities. Abnormalities in the limbic system and globus pallidus, with their close relationship to the CSF space, may be specific biomarkers for disease evaluation.
| S-EPMC4043527 | biostudies-literature
Project description:Subjective cognitive decline (SCD) may be an at-risk stage of Alzheimer's disease (AD) occurring prior to amnestic mild cognitive impairment (aMCI). To examine white matter (WM) defects in SCD, diffusion images from 27 SCD (age=65.3±8.0), 35 aMCI (age=69.2±8.6) and 25 AD patients (age=68.3±9.4) and 37 normal controls (NC) (age=65.1±6.8) were compared using Tract-Based Spatial Statistics (TBSS). WM impairments common to the three patient groups were extracted, and fractional anisotropy (FA) values were averaged in each group. As compared to NC subjects, SCD patients displayed widespread WM alterations represented by decreased FA (p<0.05), increased mean diffusivity (MD; p<0.05), and increased radial diffusivity (RD; p<0.05). In addition, localized WM alterations showed increased axial diffusivity (AxD; p<0.05) similar to what was observed in aMCI and AD patients (p<0.05). In the shared WM impairment tracts, SCD patients had FA values between the NC group and the other two patient groups. In the NC and SCD groups, the AVLT-delayed recall score correlated with higher AxD (r=-0.333, p=0.045), MD (r=-0.351, p=0.03) and RD (r=-0.353, p=0.025). In both the aMCI and AD groups the diffusion parameters were highly correlated with cognitive scores. Our study suggests that SCD patients present with widespread WM changes, which may contribute to the early memory decline they experience.
| S-EPMC5342351 | biostudies-literature