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Anatomical brain connectivity can assess cognitive dysfunction in multiple sclerosis
journal contribution
posted on 2023-06-08, 14:54 authored by Marco Bozzali, B Spanò, G J M Parker, G Giulietti, M Castelli, B Basile, S Rossi, L Serra, G Magnani, U Nocentini, C Caltagirone, D Centonze, Mara CercignaniBACKGROUND: Brain disconnection plays a major role in determining cognitive disabilities in multiple sclerosis (MS). We recently developed a novel diffusion-weighted magnetic resonance imaging (DW-MRI) tractography approach, namely anatomical connectivitity mapping (ACM), that quantifies structural brain connectivity. OBJECTIVE: Use of ACM to assess structural connectivity modifications in MS brains and ascertain their relationship with the patients' Paced-Auditory-Serial-Addition-Test (PASAT) scores. METHODS: Relapsing-remitting MS (RRMS) patients (n = 25) and controls (n = 25) underwent MRI at 3T, including conventional images, T1-weighted volumes and DW-MRI. Volumetric scans were coregistered to fractional anisotropy (FA) images, to obtain parenchymal FA maps for both white and grey matter. We initiated probabilistic tractography from all parenchymal voxels, obtaining ACM maps by counting the number of streamlines passing through each voxel, then normalizing by the total number of streamlines initiated. The ACM maps were transformed into standard space, for statistical use. RESULTS: RRMS patients had reduced grey matter volume and FA, consistent with previous literature. Also, we showed reduced ACM in the thalamus and in the head of the caudate nucleus, bilaterally. In our RRMS patients, ACM was associated with PASAT scores in the corpus callosum, right hippocampus and cerebellum. CONCLUSIONS: ACM opens a new perspective, clarifying the contribution of anatomical brain disconnection to clinical disabilities in MS.
History
Publication status
- Published
Journal
Multiple SclerosisISSN
1352-4585Publisher
SAGE PublicationsExternal DOI
Issue
9Volume
19Page range
1161-1168Department affiliated with
- BSMS Neuroscience Publications
Full text available
- No
Peer reviewed?
- Yes
Legacy Posted Date
2013-05-13Usage metrics
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